Day four of our eight-day food and wine trip and our stomachs are beginning to groan. South Africa is more than proving why it is has become a global leader on the gastronomic scene. So much has changed even in two years, when I was last here.
Gone is the fussiness and the cream sauces — now it’s all about showing off the stunning local produce, with clean lines and uncomplicated flavours. And we’ve tasted some stunning wines too, including, I think, the best Chardonnay I’ve ever had from South Africa (from Chamonix), and Syrah that almost made us cry it was so good (from Boekenhoutskloof).
I’m with Angela Hartnett, Britain’s most famous female chef. Hartnett is well known here too, we’re discovering. South African chefs closely follow what’s happening abroad and they are travelling widely. This, I reckon, is a leading factor in this country’s elevation to world-class cuisine.
On previous visits, signature dishes were invariably too rich, too complicated — ingredients fighting on the plate. Now it’s all about three big flavours, at most, enhanced by some clever background accents.
Last night, for example, Angela and I visited The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek where chef Margot Janse served up dishes such as braised free range Klein Karoo lamb, chakalaka marmalade (a sort of spicy ratatouille), lemon basil, salted grapes and roast garlic.
Of course, Margot knew of Angela (and vice versa) and she sent out eight of her best dishes, which naturally we couldn’t resist finishing.
This came at the end of a day that started with fish and chips in Hout Bay. Ok, so it’s a rather unconventional breakfast but we were told they were worth the 20-minute drive from Cape Town following the shore. And they were, made extra special by the view over a long white sandy beach and the soaring coastal range.
Then we had to stop by The Roundhouse for a picnic, where Angela’s old sous chef, ‘PJ’, now cooks. A native South African, he is one of five brains behind the colonial-style hunting lodge perched above Camps Bay. At night, it smartens up, but by day it offers picnics, eaten on whitewashed tables overlooking the bay.
We ordered our food — assorted tapas served in glass jars — by ticking boxes on a menu, accompanied by freshly baked bread from ace patissier, Vanessa, who had also worked with Angela.
And we hadn’t got to lunch yet — but you get the picture. Eating with Hartnett is proving to be tougher than I had expected — not that I’m complaining; only my waistline is.
The full version of Fiona Sims’s feature on her food tour with Angela Hartnett around South Africa is in the June issue of High Life.
