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How chefs say cheers to one of their own

By Donald Paul, Business Day Weekender

The restaurant world is a cut-throat business but, as DONALD PAUL discovered at a farewell feast for one of SA’s finest, there is honour among chefs.

WHEN chef Graeme Shapiro opened The Restaurant in Somerset Road, on the borderline between Cape Town’s mundane Green Point and trendy De Waterkant, there were mutterings about the presumptuous title. There were further mumblings about what he assumed his clients would pay for his sometimes audacious offerings.

The place was small and the kitchen, in full view at the back, minute; upstairs was a cramped, awkwardly structured galley. Yet within a year, The Restaurant was a must on every gourmet’s dance card. You sensed in Graeme ’s cooking that he not only wanted to coax every filament of flavour from his ingredients, but that he also wanted to distil every bit of fun he could while doing so. He once walked in carrying a bunch of jasmine flowers he’d picked on his way out of the house. Later, he served a sorbet palate cleanser redolent with jasmine.

When Graeme decided to leave SA recently, nobody asked who’d fill his shoes, but it was an unspoken question that flickered among his friends. Many of those friends happen to be chefs and rather than jockeying for succession they decided to throw him a farewell party of note.

To get six of the country’s top chefs cooking in one kitchen on the same night requires the persuasive skills of a Winchester 30-06 aimed at your head and the commanding attention of a live rattlesnake under your silver cloche.

The man to do it was Kitchen Cowboy and Alchemist Pete Goffe-Wood. He asked five others to choose an item from Graeme’s memorable menu and do their version of it on the night (he had already chosen the Grilled Squid with Pumpkin Seed Pesto as his contribution). The dinner was to take place at his Alchemy Workshop.

Also invited were various food writers and winemaker Bruce Jack of Flagstone, whose vinous skills and bottles of enthusiasm were more than equal to the task the chefs threw at him.

“You won’t believe the ease we had in putting this together,” said Pete, during one of the many speeches given that night. “Everyone I asked simply said: where, when, what?”

If you put six chefs into a kitchen, however, add a spoonful of sous chefs and then stir in about 30 guests and a photographer, the odds are pretty low on getting any semblance of a meal together within any time frame, African or otherwise. Chefs become kitchen dervishes, careering about in a roisterous, self-induced mania of practical jokes, insults and a chorus of: “You’re not going to try that are you?” every time someone picked up an ingredient, utensil or simply turned up the gas.

The two chefs who didn’t give the profession a bad name were David Grier of De Oude Welgemoed, and Matthew Gordon of Haute Cabrière and French Connection. There was around their preparations a triumphant stillness, unmindful of the prevailing frenzy. It didn’t help.

Graeme knew nothing of the party, though his fabulous wife Robyn was a necessary conspirator: someone needed to make sure he turned up. (True to form, he was late for his own party — but given the state of the kitchen it didn’t matter).

Chef Franck Dangereux, who’d look equally comfortable in a Tricolour rugby jersey as a chef’s jacket, started the evening with Seared Foie Gras with Oysters on Brioche and a Cape Brandy Cream. Franck said he took “a little licence” with Graeme ’s signature dish but then you’d expect that from the man who took La Colombe into the international top 50 restaurants of the year last year. (He’s no longer with La Colombe and we’re desperate to know where he’ll surface next. There’s rumour of a place in Noordhoek …)

Bruce Jack opened a few bottles (and then some more) of his 2005 Cape Winemakers Guild Month of Sundays, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc from Elim, Chardonnay from the Helderberg and some Riesling and Morio Muscat from the Swartberg and Oudtshoorn. It was, despite the fruit (pears, perhaps?), a crisp, ideal wine with a lovingly lingering taste.

David followed with Tuna Carpaccio with Black Bean Vinaigrette. He is currently running across the Great Wall of China, a distance of more than 5000km — although, in all fairness, I don’t think the trials of the dinner drove him to do it.

Bruce Jack pulled out the 2003 Flagstone Fiona Pinot Noir for the tuna — and if what’s been written about the flavours bottled in it is vaguely true, we were in trouble. I could find little of the Egyptian dukkah but spice there was, and berries and a bit of vanilla. It’s a delicious wine, but then I am mad about Pinot noir.

It was left to the inimitable Margot Janse of Le Quartier Français to do Graeme’s famous Marinated Wok Fried Quails. When Graeme put this dish on his menu one restaurant reviewer, who shall remain nameless, described it as “wok dried quails”.

Margot confesses that she knew Graeme was up to some magical things in The Restaurant, but when she read this she didn’t know whether to weep or throw out all her woks. In the end she paid him a visit and was relieved to discover the simple truth.

Bruce Jack offered a 2002 Schiefferterrasen Riesling, an entry-level wine from Heymann-Loewenstein estate on the slopes of Germany’s Moselle Valley; surprising, because Bruce Jack, in partnership with Graham Knox (as Jack & Knox Winecraft) produces Frostline, a Riesling from grapes grown some 1000m above sea level in the Swartberg. That said, the Schiefferterrasen’s clean elegance went well with the spices of the quail.

Being a helicopter pilot in his non-cooking moments probably contributed to Matthew Gordon’s calm-under-fire while serving the Grilled Ostrich with Deep-Fried Sweet Potatoes. It was the fifth course and Bruce Jack should probably not have brought out the 2003 Dark Horse Shiraz — there was enough wildness at the table already. But it’s a beautiful wine, and perfect for the course.

Bruce Robertson of the showroom was finally dragged away from the table and told to serve the Tarte Tatin with Praline Ice-cream. For a while the kitchen sounded like a parliament on a full day with the backbenchers on Red Bull rather than their usual tipple.

Someone asked Bruce if he’d lost his crib notes. A sous chef didn’t know whether to laugh or run away screaming. At some point Graeme made a speech while Robyn wept and, all of us being tired and emotional, we wept along with her.

Grilled Squid With Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Pete Goffe-Wood’s variation on Graeme Shapiro’s recipe

Three tomatoes

900g squid

100g rocket

1 cup pumpkin seed pesto

Blanche, skin and seed the tomatoes. Cut the remaining tomato flesh into a neat dice. Season the squid with salt and pepper and grill on a hot griddle plate or sauté in a fiercely hot wok. Remove the squid from the heat and place in a large bowl. Add one tablespoon of the pesto followed by the chopped tomato and mix together. Add the rocket just before serving, toss and plate, garnishing with the rest of the pesto.

Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Two cups pumpkin seeds

Three green chillies

15g lemon zest

Six cloves garlic

Three tblsp black mustard seeds, roasted

Three tblsp coriander seeds, roasted

80ml lemon juice

200ml pumpkin seed oil

Put all the ingredients except the oil into a pestle and mortar and grind into a rough paste. Thin the mixture out with the oil. Season the pesto with salt and pepper. Serves six.