Last night at Weylandts in Green Point was like walking into The Secret Garden of gourmet food. Guests were giving foraging gloves at the door to protect their hands and clothes and instructed literally to dig in!

The night was a celebration of Dutch furniture designer Linteloo, who is also a benefactor of our charity Isabelo, where we feed 800 to 900 children a nutritional breakfast every day! Last night beautiful chairs were auctioned off to raise funds for the cause.  Find out more about the Isabelo Feeding Scheme.

Margot Janse and her team of chefs put on a dazzling display, from the moment you entered the contemporary furniture store you were whisked away into another world. It was like Charlie and The Chocolate Factory for grown-ups. There was a wooden tree hung with tubes of truffle that instructed you to smear the paste onto porcini bark; a multitude of colourful textured  ‘balls’—filled with delicious intriguing centres; birds’ nests made out of fried potato, and, and…

Move away from the tree dripping with delicious treasures to a trough filed with edible soil, mushroom and beetroot sponge, buttermilk and Jerusalem artichoke soups in dainty glasses; and tin cans that once opened revealed a pickled ‘roll mop’; and much, much more. Guests were encouraged to literally graze and forage this garden of explosive colour.

The next stop on this food journey was to the cheese table, where a chef diligently shaved fungi-looking slivers of cheese, to be accompanied with fruits suspended in a flower vase like so many marbles. To accompany the cheese, slices of crescent toast hung on another tree made out of nails.

The last installation was a wall covered literally with dessert spoons; each one holding something sweet, like rough and textured edible rocks.

What a night!

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We spotted this insect-eresting menu depicted on a slideshow on Nowness.

“Moth mousse whipped with hazelnut milk, cricket broth with a side of grasshopper garum sauce and a liquorice-glazed ant stick reveal their unexpectedly delicious side in this still-life series by photographer Joss McKinley.’

Nowness reports that the Nordic Food Lab, created the ‘experimental menu as part of the Wellcome Collection’s Who’s the Pest? season, a collaboration with a mobile arts “Pestival” in celebration of all things six-legged’.

The Nordic Food Lab is run by René Redzepi of Noma, and sits in a houseboat across the harbour from his restaurant.

According to Nowness, it was ‘born out of Redzepi’s quest to tap into more local and underused ingredients, it is a forum in which chefs meet scientists, chemists and academics on a shared mission to explore the 1,400 untapped wholesome crawling creatures that are edible to man’.

On Sunday, 10 February 2013 is the Chinese New Year celebration. Whether you’re cooking an Asian feast or simply ordering take-out make sure you dress your table to impress.

The table cloth
The colour red is hugely symbolic in Chinese culture, it signifies life and all living things, so either use a red table cloth, or lay your table with Chinese newspapers with a red runner down its centre.

Prawn crackers
Sinfully delicious, these quintessential Chinese treats make beautiful table dressings too. Pile the colourful crackers in a red or black bowl.

Square plates and round tea cups
In China circles and squares are said to respectively represent heaven and earth. Brew a pot of jasmine tea to enjoy in the tea cups while feasting.

Red envelopes
On Chinese New Year it’s considered good luck to give a red envelope filled with money, normally to children, but for sake of the table setting place one on top of each napkin.  To make your own simply fold over red paper and adorn with a gold sticker (an image of a snake would be appropriate considering 2013 is Year of the Snake). Or buy one.

Departures Magazine is ‘navigating the luxury frontier’, and is a publication that focuses on the world’s best high-end travel, fashion, shopping, art, culture and food.

And they’ve recently included us in ‘The World’s Top Tasting Menus’.

Departures Magazine reports: “The African-inspired Surprise Tasting menu melds African influences with classic haute cuisine in an innovative, elevated way.”

Visit the Departures Magazine site to view the slide show, and to see who else made the list.

It used to be that apps were appetisers in the restaurant game, these days the term is also applied to mobile food photography apps diners use to share their ‘food porn’. Instagram and Hipstamatic are not the only food friendly devices out there, the folks over at FineDiningLovers.com did an interesting article on the best apps to use for this purpose. Here’s our top three.

Filterstorm
Basically Photoshop for an iPhone this app is the whole deal, it features even more tools than Adobe’s PS Express. ‘Use it to simulate a narrow depth of field which can make a photo of a plated meal look more appealing, use it as your preferred colour balance app, or even crop if you didn’t get the most pleasing composition to begin with.’

Incredibooth
Use this app to make a photostrip, and tell a story about your food experience.

Over
This one’s for the real foodie, add text to your images, in the forms of notes, details, epiphanies, it’s a great way to record big food moments.

* Photo is from Vanity Fair’s food porn column - definitely worth a look!

This season our executive chef, Margot Janse, is experimenting with gorgeous summer produce, including hibiscus flowers and marron (crayfish).  Expect the unexpected, and a proud procession of unusual and timeless African ingredients, such as baobab and buchu, which are given new life on the plate.

Chef Margot Janse uses a procession of uniquely African ingredients in The Tasting Room, from baobab to buchu. The most simple of all ingredients, salt, is no different.

Sourced from a mineral hot spring in the Lowveld known as Baleni it’s one of the last places in Southern Africa where non-mechanised salt production still takes places. Every winter groups of local women hand-harvest small amounts for their own use as well as to supplement their income.

The process is deeply rooted in the metaphysical, spurred on by the warm water, rising bubbles and sulphurous smell of the swamp. A spirit medium determines the day on which salt production will start. Then, salt-makers place offerings and libations at the foot of a dead leadwood tree on the edge of the swamp into which the spring flows.

An easy idea for Braai Day. Simply coat a selection of mushrooms in olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs then thread on a stick or skewer for a gorgeous and delicious side.

The blushing beetroot recipe as seen on South Africa’s Masterchef.

Recipe

Beetroot sponge:

• 50ml beetroot juice
• Pinch of salt
• ½ gelatine leaf

Take 1 flexi pan half sphere mould (600 x 400 mm / 400 x 300 mm), then place the gelatine in a small bowl with ice water and set aside. Place the beetroot juice and salt in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and add the softened gelatine leaf.

Place a fine strainer over a medium mixing bowl and strain the beetroot juice. Take a medium bowl and fill with ice, pour the beetroot mixture into a slightly smaller bowl and place it on to the ice.

Whisk the beetroot mixture continuously until it is aerated and cold. The gelatin will have set it. Scoop the mixture into a piping bag and pipe into flexi pan half sphere mould. (spray with ‘Spray and Cook’ first) Scrape all excess off, using a spatula – so the tops of the half spheres are flat. Refrigerate.

Beetroot crumbs:

• 50gr panko crumbs
• 20 ml beetroot juice in spray bottle
• Preheat oven to 80C

Spread the crumbs in a thin layer on an oven tray and spray with the beetroot juice, making sure all the crumbs are pink, but not soaked. Dry out in the oven for 30 minutes.

Buchu powder:

• 200gr fresh buchu, leaves picked off the stems

Leave the buchu to dry and blend until very fine using a spice grinder.

Buttermilk labne:

• 500 ml buttermilk
• 40cmx40cm piece of muslin cloth

Hang the buttermilk overnight in the muslin cloth. Once drained, discard the extra whey and place the buttermilk in a small piping bag.

Spinach and onion puree:

• ½  onion,  thinly sliced
• 125ml single cream
• 100gr baby spinach
• 10gr unsalted butter

-for onion puree

Warm up a medium pan, add the butter and sliced onions and sweat until soft without getting any colour on the onions. Season with salt. Add the cream, and reduce over high heat for 5 minutes.

- For spinach puree

Boil a pot of water add some salt. Blanch the spinach in the boiling water for 1 minute. Remove the spinach with a large slotted spoon, drain and place directly into a blender jug. Blend until very smooth, add the creamed onions and blend again. Pass through a tamis.

Cucumber and dill granita:

• 150gr cucumber, diced
• 10gr dill, stems removed
• 5gr white wine vinegar
• 2gr salt
• 1gr xanthan gum

Blend all the ingredients in bar blender and pass through a fine sieve, pour into a tray with a wide base, and freeze.Scrape the frozen mixture with a fork to form fine flakes. Keep frozen.

Serving:

Scoop the centre out of the beetroot sponges and fill it with some of the spinach and onion puree, then take the two halves and stick them together. Carefully roll in the beetroot crumbs.

Pipe 1 tablespoon of buttermilk on the plate and drag across with a small spatula. Place the beetroot ball on the plate, scoop some of the granita next to the ball and sprinkle with some buchu powder.

Herbert Janse, Margot’s brother, flew in from Holland and spent an intensive couple of weeks redesigning the Tasting Room. With a background in set and theatre design he certainly has theatrical flair, and has created a stage worthy of the cuisine. “The décor reflects Margot Janse’s food,” says Herbert. “The unexpected.”

There are teasers throughout. Antique crystal bulbs dating back to 1910 have been placed irregularly on the ceiling. Herbert found them in Holland: “they’re early electric bulbs that were once used at fairs.”

There’s also a set of crockery stuck upside down to the celling—almost like a wink from the chef herself.

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