Devour life’s divine signs

THERE are signs in life which should not be ignored. In this case, having multiple awardwinning chef George Jardine’s brand-spanking-new restaurant put in front of you. How could we not go there for dinner?

With his other winelands restaurant Jordan placing in the Eat Out top 10 at the end of last year, Jardine is clearly not languishing on any laurels. Apparently, this all happened rapidly when he secured these premises about two months ago. Restaurant Jardine opened last Wednesday and we went two days later, feeling quite special to be there so soon.

I’d had word on it and as it happened we were spending the night right across the road at the Stellenbosch Hotel. While lunching at the hotel’s Stellenbosch Kitchen, we eyed the new establishment and agreed we simply had to do it. Afterwards we popped in to say hello to George and to book a table for dinner at the latest possible hour (we’d eaten a rather substantial meal and were hoping it would have digested sufficiently by that time).

Jardine has two small rooms of tables, a tiny kitchen and a tiny menu, which changes daily and from service to service, focusing on a “seasonal presentation of locally sourced organic produce where possible.” By mid- afternoon, George wasn’t even sure what he’d be serving later. A copy of that day’s lunch menu offered oysters (R15 each), four main dishes (vegetarian, fish, red meat, R160 each) and three desserts, one of which was a cheese platter.

For dinner, you may choose a two- or three-course menu, or you can do a tasting menu of all the dishes. We aimed for two courses each, but Sexy Deborah was still defeated by lunch so she managed only one: a starter of grilled purple figs with gorgonzola, seed crisps, roasted walnut pesto and watercress, which we had seen them doing the prep for earlier. Simple and magnificent.

I began with seared salmon with tosazu ( Japanese rice vinegar) dressing. This dish included charred aubergine mousse which was surprisingly complementary – there is no need to question George’s skill and knowledge, only to be amazed – and air-dried mushrooms providing texture.

The third starter was carpaccio of Joostenburg Vlakte duck with confit celeriac, poached celery, apple dressing and brioche.

Main courses were aged Chalmar sirloin with lentil and roasted garlic, roasted marrow and grilled porcini; roasted False Bay mackerel with zucchini lime purée, salted olive dressing and crispy kale; and the one I chose, roasted cauliflower polonaise with parsley sauce, cauliflower espuma and gruyère dauphine – heavenly cheesy balls of deliciousness.

Polonaise is the fancy French description for a dish topped with browned, buttered bread crumbs, finely chopped hard boiled egg yolks and whites and parsley. It’s also a Polish dance (the things you learn on Google), but in the culinary world it’s used to enhance veg like cauli, broccoli, or asparagus.

The food was as fantastic as you would expect. The service was a little slow in the beginning, until Sexy Deborah pointed out to the staff we had been waiting quite a while, without even a drinks order being taken. After that it was brilliant and utterly charming. All the dishes were explained in great detail, proving once again that proper training of the floor staff is imperative in providing a superior dining experience.

The desserts we did not have were Valrhona chocolate parfait with freeze-dried raspberry and white chocolate cremaux, compressed spanspek with lime jelly, melon sorbet and mint; and a cheese platter. The bread board brought to the table at the beginning of the meal was one of the best I’ve had, especially the warm little cheese puffs.

Since we hadn’t had two courses each, we negotiated a deal which saw us paying for three – R320 – plus R90 for two glasses of Graham Beck brut, bringing the total to R410 excluding a tip. Two courses cost R280 and the six- course tasting menu is R420.