Gauteng Epicurean Icons; gastronomy for grown ups by grown ups
Why are we discussing this?
1. The cult of youth has gone mad - I am on the verge of taking out a restraining order against the persistent PR girl from hell. Her client is a perfectly innocuous 23 year old chef whom, she has repeatedly informed me, deserves media coverage because “he looks like Robbie Williams.” My question is how is that relevant to whether or not he can cook?
2. Gastronomic enfants terribles tend to photograph well and as such they take up nearly all the space in glossy food magazines but they often haven’t had enough life experience to be all that interesting on a plate.
3. Today let’s look at those with skills, creativity and experience at the other end of the age spectrum.
4. What follows seeks to celebrate the elder statesmen of the Gauteng food world.
5. We need to treasure such people because we have already let so many fabulous food professionals and marvelous iconic restaurants slip away from us – The Three Ships, Daniel Chapat, Marco Balmelli to name just a few.
6. Besides in difficult economic circumstances we can’t afford to have dud meals. The epicurean oldies have got the consistency and reliability thing down pat. They don’t make muck ups. In tough times gastronomy for grown ups by grown ups is the way to go.
Egoli epicurean icon 1: Marc Guebert
This Gauteng/ Gallic gastronomic treasure estimates that since he arrived in South Africa in 1972 he has whipped up over 400,000 of his signature soufflés; first at the legendary Île de France, later at Bistro 277 and most recently at the aptly named Le Soufflé at the Pineslopes Shopping Centre, Fourways, Johannesburg. 400, 000 souffles is a lot of egg white. You are guaranteed that you won’t have a flop.
Egoli epicurean icon 2: Walter Ulz
Sandton’s Linger Longer Restaurant served its first guests in 1961 (they are thus 18 months away from their 50th birthday). Chef-patron Walter Ulz is a relative newcomer having only been drizzling truffled parmesan cream onto grateful langoustines and placing oysters Rockefeller before heiresses for a mere 33 years. Almost all the waiters have been there for at least as long as Walter so the service is as smooth as the sauces.
Egoli epicurean icon 3: Daniel Leusch
While quite a lot of the epicurean icons trade on a retro-chic appeal but there is no reason they can’t also be at the forefront of food fashion. The perpetual wild child award for endless innovation must surely go to Chef Daniel Leusch who has been cooking up a storm at La Madeleine, Pretoria for 34 years. From bouillabaisse martinis to fresh coriander in the chocolate pudding he gives the lie to the notion that innovation is the prerogative of the young.
Egoli epicurean icons 4 and 5: Brian Shalkoff and Eduan Naude
Callow youth may struggle to comprehend the alimentary cultural and political importance of Eduan Naude and Brian Shalkoff who have been mixing things up at Gramadoelas for fourty three years.
In the height of apartheid their exploration of the deluxe dining possibilities of African cuisine was as revolutionary and their non-racial admissions policy. In 1970 the restaurant (which was then in Joubert Park and is now in Newtown, Johannesburg) accepted a booking from the United States South Africa Leaders Exchange Programme and amongst the party was an African American delegate. Chef Naude remembers “it was illegal to accept black customers. We were given a telephone number to ring to get special permission but it just rang and rang. No one ever picked it up. So I said ‘this is nonsense. We’re just going ahead’ and we did and we just took everyone from then on. We were threatened with the loss of our liquor license but really such rubbish had to be challenged.”
The iconic building: the Rand Club:
On his first visit to the then recently established mining camp of Johannesburg, Cecil Rhodes walked along the dust track of Commissioner Street and on reaching the bare veldt of Loveday Street said: “here we must have a club.”
Over a century later and despite a recent fire, the Rand Club still stands on this spot.
With its sweeping staircases and stained-glass windows, it is a gloriously grand relic of a by-gone age. The food is dated and not that great but to sit there is to be marinated in history.
Non members need to call ahead.
The one that got away:
Renata Coetzee is the great South African food historian/ anthropologist. She was based in Gauteng for many years but sadly, since her official retirement, we have lost her to the Cape.
The good news is that she is far from retired. She is about to publish a book on Khoi-Khoin food history and culture and she has planted an indigenous vegetable garden at the Solms-Delta wine estate, Franschhoek.
These vegetables are being put to delicious use by Chef Shaun Schoeman at the estate’s Fyndraai restaurant. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating and Chef Schoeman’s boegoe seasoned kingklip, confetti bos macerated quail and malva pudding with sour fig sauce confirms notions of local as lekker.
Icons in the making?
To be an icon you need to have the right combination of gastronomic skill, creativity, stamina and personal magnetism. This triumvirate is quite rare amongst the younger food professionals in Gauteng but the following are possible egoli epicurean icons in the making…
• Arnold Tanzer
• Fortunato Mazzone
• Stavros Vladislavic
• Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo
• Andrea Burgener
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