Voted as the Best Restaurant in Africa in 2013 is no joke but the food served will make you laugh. Out loud. The whimsical collaboration of far-fetched ingredients come together like a finely tuned orchestra, this is sustenance catapulted into a crazy, outlandish world that I didn't ever want to leave.
“Necessity is the mother of invention” so they say; or at least it was, but times have changed and so has the world of food and dining, I'm not sure how necessary 10 courses is but Luke Dale-Roberts is and who am I to question him.
Luke opened up the Test Kitchen in 2010 and once word got out of his culinary wizardry bookings backed up for months. 'Behind every great man is an even better woman' and this is where Ivor Jones comes into the picture. Mr Jones is no lady but he is Head Chef at the TK and runs this Woodstock eatery like a tight ship, the open plan kitchen leaves very little room for error, there is no dress rehearsal; this is the real deal with an audience of 65 people waiting with baited breath – every night.
Testing out the new Gourmand Menu at the TK this August, I was expecting nothing but the best; I am talking Golden flippin' salt and that's exactly what I got. Served on marbled slates, wooden boards, glass bowls and petri dishes, the creativity doesn't start and end with the food alone. The décor is dark and sexy, industrial with its vintage steel tables yet artisanal with its hand-stitched leather seats. We had the best seats in the house, propped up at the bar, mere inches away from these enchanters, resulting in the chefs themselves leaning over and handing us their art, for them to explain and for us to devour, rolling eyes in ecstasy closely followed by giggling like school children, in amazement.
Although there were stand out dishes and customers' favourites, I can't focus too much on the particular individual dishes because it is ever-changing but it is the creed that The Test Kitchen team lives by. Constant, valiant, innovative creation happens here. Hearts and souls are poured into every component, even the stinging nettles that the chefs and waiting staff delicately handle, (Luke must have a wicked British sense of humour to employ his staff to fondle this disagreeable foliage.)
TK has profound food, yes, it has mystical beauteous interiors – yep, a sommelier and wine list that is quite unique. Teetotallers rejoice, there is TWG Tea pairing matched perfectly to every mouthful. So by the looks of things we already have all the characteristics that define a brilliant restaurant - but that's not enough for these guys, another dimension is added; we also have theatre.
Luke's mum clearly never told him not to play with his food and I'm glad because he approaches cooking with reckless abandon. One of our fish dishes (yes there was more than one) was cooked in a concrete sphere nogal, star anise and cinnamon smoke delicately licked the fish with its aromatic flavour, our charming waiter brought this stone ball over to our table, opened the lid and the scent from heaven wafted towards us, he smiled and laughed whilst explaining the dish then teetered back to the kitchen where they plated up for us.
The staff and indeed the chefs regularly interact with the diners, showing and explaining certain methods behind their madness adding to the theatrical nature. What I must emphasise is the casual light heartedness of the Test Kitchen. Everyone knows they are creating something that quite frankly could contribute to world peace it's so good but they casually, nonchalantly play their parts, have a good time, smile and enjoy what they do all the whilst keeping the utmost professionalism.
The “Foie Gras Four Trees” was my favourite savoury dish (closely followed by the lamb smiley,)
with Southern flavours of oak, pine, chestnut and maple this was a sweet but earthy dish, there was pear – poached and spice infused, duck (meticulously measured to a 1.2cm slice) and a slither of sweet soft foie gras with a caramelised coating and a deep nutty chestnut purée. Incredible.
My sweet tooth was well and truly satisfied, as our dessert was preceded by our two pre-desserts and all three of these preceded the petit fours to trump all petit fours; think toasted brinjal and black sesame marshmallows with rosemary, rich salty chocolate millionaire’s shortbread, adorned with gold salt flakes and fig pastilles.
For my trio of desserts - namely, 'apple', 'guava' and 'lemon' was the description on the menu, I won't go into too much detail but the 'lemon' was in fact what dressed up to look just like a perfectly poached egg.
Lemon curd is encased in soft Italian meringue and squeezed into a cleaned egg-shell, before being poached and ever so carefully removed and plated up so your faux egg yolk is melting lemon curd. This is served amongst other lemony delights and a thin sheet of golden meringue.
Try the Discovery 5 course menu for R590/R880 with wine pairings or the Gourmand menu for R800/R1250 with wine pairings or R1000 with tea pairings.
Don't leave without trying the pineapple vanilla bean Cosmopolitan cocktail.
