One night in Jordan

You may be (quite rightly) warned against judging a book by its cover, but you can certainly judge a restaurant by its bread board. Flair and creativity can be streamlined directly into this un-plated course; the first edible chefs creations we see after sitting down at a table. This is the foremost opportunity to incite excitement and anticipation in your diners. If the bread is plain and simple, then it better be freshly baked with some local butter. If it's a stale old government loaf in a basket then you must know whatever's coming next is likely to be equally lacklustre.

The opposite of lacklustre is the mighty fine bread board at Jordan. Consisting of (banters eat your heart out) non bread item crisp crunchy crackling, alongside (all baked on site) seeded loaf, vetkoeks and mini ciabattas, served with spicy floral nasturtium pesto, garlicky aioli and honeyed parsnip puree with crunchy nutty pumpkin seeds. Silence followed.

Jordan Restaurant at the awe-inspiring Jordan Wine Estatehardly needs bread to define it – but Head Chef George Jardine is a baker and runs the Jordan bakery when he is away from the pumping restaurant with its finely tuned dishes. It was the bread board at a dinner at Jordan which took us to second gear and enlightened us to just how serious George is about food and how exciting tastes, flavours and textures can be – this ain’t just food for living, this is undoubtedly living for food. 

Local, seasonal produce? Check. Paired with wines, grown on the estate? Check. Slick service? Check. Outstanding views? Check. 

The only thing this estate was lacking, was the pompous heirs and graces you may often find at such fine estates and restaurants. Inside voices be gone, my laughter need not be reigned in here. Relaxed vibes all round, from the restaurant to the bakery, wine tasting deck and al fresco lawns.
 

 

The late autmn visit meant cosy knitwear and full bodied Shiraz for us and we weren't complaining. 

 

In addition to Jordan's offerings, they have just added 13 luxury suites to the property – showcased in March this year – these suites are the figs to our jam and make this venue complete. A day here is just not enough and waking up here is a thing of beauty. Being slightly off the beaten track outside the town of Stellenbosch means quiet misty mornings with only birds tweeting in the air.
 

The absolute pinnacle of relaxation, the stoeps outside the luxury suite we had the pleasure of staying in was metres away from the deep green and burgundy autumnal vineyards, a sight which will have you staring in silence as it lights up under the sun, golden – almost glowing like a fire and hypnotising us. Inside the suites is everything you could possibly need, an extra length King sized bed, a free standing bath alongside the shower, wi-fi, a large TV, fireplace and coffee machine. 

 

Visiting Jordan – there are too many beautiful sights and tasty eats to go home after an afternoon. With the bakery doing its thing all day long, the wine tasting is an absolute must, showcasing some of SA's finest wines and the awards to prove it. Jordan restaurant is a four course affair, an affordable fine dining experience that you should sit back, relax and just enjoy the culinary journey.
 

At R380 for your four courses and R190 for an additional wine pairing.

 

To give you an idea of dishes that feature on the menu, I started with a rich orange butternut veloute, baby beets, roast buffalo mozarella balls with a basil puff bread and parmesan shavings. Rich, warm, sweet, salty, velvety and crunchy. Paired with the Jordan 'Real McCoy Riesling' things were getting better with every bite. Changing from white to red wine for my main, I enjoyed the smoky Syrah, Jordan's 2012 'The Prospector' and boy did it go down well with the double herbed springbok loin, rare and sliced thinly with butter poached turnip sauce, roasted pear and walnuts. 

 

For afters, many chose a trip to the cheese room which showcases many artisanal Cape farm cheeses paired with Jordan preserves and breads – all of which I could see were demolished leaving barely any crumbs. My sweet tooth led me to the famous honey and poppy seed souffle – and stealing spoons of the guava mille feuille alongside me with the most ludicrously good caramelised chocoalte ice cream. 

 

A spectacular, laid back and wondrous estate, if you have not visited Jordan you really should. After another spectacular meal from My Jardin in the form of smoked trout and scrambled eggs in the Bakery we trekked up through the vineyards and meandered our way down through the vines, often visited by one of the farm border collies and took in the sunny autumn rays before checking out but not quite leaving. A wine tasting on the patio in front of the lush green lawns had to happen, buying some Jordan Estate bottles for the wine rack to crack open in a few years time as well as to remind us of a brilliant visit and yet another reason we are thankful to live in such a bountiful region.

Ryan's Kitchen in Franschhoek

I love surprises. Almost as much as I love food. The ultimate weekend trip for me is a day out in the beautiful winelands with some good food, good company and maybe a glass or two of the grown up grape juice. An unscheduled visit to Ryan's Kitchen in Franschhoek on the picturesque main road turned out to be the most pleasant surprise. Every bite had me wide-eyed with delight.

Ryan's Kitchen recently moved to it's current location. It was given a make-over which included a redesign of the menu which now comprises lots of 'small plates'.

This theme is certainly one we’ve seen popping up all over the foodie scene at the moment as food becomes even more social and sharing dishes is the flavour of the day. The menu even states 'when ordering, think “we” and not “I”'.

When it came to ordering my mind was racing, reading through all the different dishes with their exciting combinations but then a wave of relief came over me when I realised so many of these dishes did not have to go untouched, untasted. This new menu style completely eliminates the need to choose one out of many. Now, you can have it all! Food envy is a thing of the past.

Lana, Ryan’s wife and front-of-house manager suggested between seven and nine plates to share and we greedily agreed. We chose a few from each section of the menu, which is divided into 'salad and vegetables', 'fish and shellfish' and 'meat and poultry' so we could see what Ryan was getting at. The artisanal bread box came first as did the waft of fresh warm breads served with citrus pepper butter and earthy hummus. Beautiful presentation in a box with a different types of bread in each drawer. If this was in lieu of the normal roll in a basket we figured we were in for something unforgettable and we were spot on.

Our first dish was a simple sounding grilled goat cheese, apple and fennel salad and granita. This dish made us both laugh out loud it was so good and simultaneously we felt foolish for never having combined these flavours before. The warm salty cheese with the tangy crunch of the apple and the cold green acidic granita was outstanding. This was closely followed by the magical mushroom tapioca 'pudding'. Ryan sautés the tapioca bullets with exotic mushrooms and transforms this childhood nightmare (my granny used to make tapioca) into a fairytale; think risotto with an awesome twist and with a glass of shiraz, nothing can go wrong.

Our fishy options were the tandoori cured cape salmon, tomato and chili "snow-eggs", again literally bursting with flavour, colour and finesse, a big and bold dish. The angelfish, light and moist with a coconut and lemongrass sauce. Both are local and sustainable SASSI friendly fish, transformed by Ryan's obvious adoration for cooking and experimenting with flavour. At this point we were more than impressed, we were actually humbled into silence as we picked every dish apart with our forks.

The duck parfait peri-peri, lemon jelly and green bean chutney was rich yet light, an edible oxymoron I haven't come across before. You have to try it to believe it. These revolutionary dishes should be at the forefront of everyone's minds and tummies.

Eight dishes was certainly enough for us and actually 6 or 7 would have been less gluttonous. Saying that we did sneak in a dessert to share. The chocolate-cardamom marquis with caramel crunch and a spicy poached plum and tart plum ice cream was everything anyone could want from a dessert. Sweet, rich, bitter, tart, spicy, cool and crunchy. I was amazed and I cannot wait to go back, I only wish I had heard about Ryan and his ambrosial kitchen sooner.

The Test Kitchen: All that and then some

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.