all we set out to do when we opened The Table at De Meye was to cook food we love for people we really like (and might come to love), using ingredients we love deeply. to be nominated for an award was completely unexpected, to win one has left us stunned.

the team at Eat Out, who do so much for the food industry and for restaurants in this country, (both as a team and in their individual careers as media or food industry practitioners) could have no idea what the award means to us. without your efforts we would not have the fierce competition and inspiration that drives the top chefs we both admire so much. indeed, we wouldn’t even know about half the chefs we now admire, nor would we be exposed to the depth and talent that South Africa has to offer the culinary world. to be recognised by you in this way is nothing short of life-altering. thank you all.

thanks must go to Jason, Camilla’s brother who is the anchor of the kitchen. without his unwavering ability to put up dishes no matter what, his experience, and his portion control which reeled us in when we wanted to keep sending out more and more food, we would not have got very far at all. along with him, our tiny team of 2 scullers and 2 waitresses have just got on and done whatever was needed to serve our growing list of customers with humour and warmth.

much was said at the awards about provenance and suppliers, and we can’t agree enough about their importance. in our own small way we try to honour the amazing producers we have in this country by finding and supporting small growers and provisioners, and cooking food that does a little justice to their incredible efforts. without them we would just have an empty room without so much as a table.

we also need customers for our empty room, and even though we still have no idea how some of you found us, we are grateful for the support of all our new friends. thanks so much to friends new and old who have been sending messages of congratulations and encouragement – this is actually about all of you.

Phil Myburgh the farmer and owner of De Meye has been a rock – a very patient rock – and has provided a beautiful space in which we can live our dream.

somewhere in this, we want to dedicate this award to our moms: my mom taught me that food is more than fuel for the body (and that i should always sit up straight and hold my knife and fork properly). food is about tradition and family and social glue.

camilla’s mom taught her about self-sufficiency and seasonality, about making do, about what ingredient goes with what, and most of all how to cook. thanks to her, Camilla was shooting pigeons for lunch in Botswana long before she learned how to spell “foraging” properly. Colette still calls several times a week to find out what’s on the menu, offer her opinion repeatedly, debate the best way of cooking this or that, and to find out if her son-in-law really intends to make her live out her days in the attic.

oh yeah, and Bertus Basson… you bastard! you knew what was going to happen when you told us to stop dreaming and open a restaurant. you knew about the 7-day weeks and mad hours and crazy equipment hassles – all of it. and you know what? we are deeply grateful to you for being the catalyst and the absolutely brilliant chef and friend that you are.

lastly… congratulations to all the Eat Out 2011 winners and the nominees. thank you and your teams. you all inspire us to unlock that door every week, light the stove and start polishing glasses…

because mussels are still in season (and just about everything else is on the orange or red lists) we’ve got some lovely live west coast mussels to serve with a garlic and parsley crust on the half shell. Jason is making his lovely soft crumb fresh white bread to go with that. a little charcuterie in the form of coppa ham is on hand for those who eschew the noble mussel. it’s made by our friend Marco Nico of the Black Pig, and it’s completely delicious – he’s even lent us a slicer to make sure we cut it right.

Main Course

a whole roast sirloin of angus beef is the hero of the table this weekend, and it will be served with sauce bearnaise and a caramelised onion tarte tatin. the tarte is rapidly becoming Camilla’s signature, to the extent that people ask for it when they book. For the rest, we are assured it will be a hot weekend, so we are going to raid Steve the Magic Man’s garden to make a delicious seasonal salad for the table.

Dessert

there has to be cake for a birthday, so it’s Jason’s dense chocolate cake with a granadilla ice cream to finish off.

call Russel on 083 252 9588 to book

please note that we are fully booked on Saturday for Belinda’s birthday

juicy nectarines are knocking about fairly cheap this month

it’s a bit of a thin time for vegetables this month, as there are very few things to harvest. in the fruit box though, there are blueberries. we’ve found a wonderful farmer right on our doorstep who’s growing organic blueberries and celebrated the new season with nectarine and blueberry tarts for dessert last weekend. of course this means that nectarines are back in season too, and we can get big trays of them everywhere. probably preserving time again. we’re certainly going to chat to the blueberry man to see if we can buy enough bulk at a decent enough price to make ice cream and jam.

in jam or ice cream - yum!

Vegetables: asparagus, baby marrows, beans, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, globe artichokes, leeks, peas, spinach

Fruit: almonds, apricots, avocados, blueberries, cherries, guavas, limes, mangos, nectarines, paw-paw, peaches, pineapples, plums, spanspek, strawberries, watermelons, melons

Herbs: mint, sage, thyme, marjoram, oreganum, basil, rosemary, fennel, dill, bay leaves

Fish: cape salmon (orange), hake, hottentot (orange), kingklip(orange), monkfish (orange), red roman(orange), skate (orange), snoek, sole (orange), yellowtail (orange), crayfish, trout

we should probably be keeping this a secret, but it seems churlish to deny anyone the contact for Langkloof Roses. the past two weeks have been legendary in the floral history of The Table, ever since Camilla met Adelaine at Langkloof farm near Wellington and ordered her first bunches of vintage roses.

Camilla just loves a rose

everyone’s been asking where they come from, and even though i’m not that into the whole floral arrangement thing, i have to admit that they are incredibly beautiful. opening up on a sunday, after the roses have been indoors overnight is awesome, with the powerful scent of natural roses permeating the entire restaurant. it really does make a difference to the look and feel of the place.

chatting with Adelaine in one of the rose gardens

it’s great to find a supplier like Langkloof practically on our doorstep. they supply the whole gamut of vintage roses from 14,000 plants that splash colour through a series of stunning gardens on the farm. visiting there is spectacular and some of the colours, like the lilac and the intense reds are completely breathtaking. Adelaine is very sweet and accommodating and if the order is big enough, they deliver at central points across the winelands and peninsula, especially for functions.

finding enough vases or jugs is becoming an issue

no prizes for guessing that Camilla loves a rose, so she’s been ordering them by the armful while the getting is good and picking them up each Friday from our friend Paula at Winefolk in Paarl.because we find ourselves deep into rose season, it’s probably a no-brainer that roses will be the theme for a good few weeks to come.

and here's their phone number...

oooh!

unbelievable produce from the Magic Man

for the past month or so, every time I arrive at a table to introduce a dish to our guests, chances are Steve the Magic Man is mentioned. he’s a market gardener who grows organic produce for the restaurant trade from a plot of ground at the back of his house in Porterville, and he’s something of a legend. if you are in the restaurant trade and you want something exceptional in the line of fresh produce – unusual varieties of shallot, purple carrots, yellow beetroots – Steve’s your man.

he’s a shadowy figure too though. you need to know people who know people to get the intro. i’ve known about him for years. i remember waiting at my studio in Observatory with Abigail Donnelly for a delivery from Magic Herbs. We were shooting a Taste Magazine editorial that required special things and this guy Steve from Magic Herbs was Abigail’s secret supplier. when the van arrived yours truly was out like a shot to meet this pimpernel of the grocery world, but he’d remained inscrutable by sending a driver in his place. the produce was incredible though and the excitement of unwrapping it there in the studio was a memory that has stayed with me.

chef Rudi with Steve during a shoot at the Mount Nelson

it actually took years for me to finally meet Steve, and this happened courtesy of chef Rudi Liebenberg at the Mount Nelson when we were shooting a story on his suppliers late last year. the Magic Man is not what you’d expect – i know i expected a hippy in crocs – he’s like the antithesis of a sustainable gardener. for starters, he sports a 70′s disco ‘tache and a thatch of carefully combed hair. flashes of gold at wrist and throat cue the quick wit and twinkly eye of a laddish joker.

when he starts talking about ingredients though, any doubt that he could possibly be the guy who grew your produce disappears completely. Steve is incredibly knowledgeable. everything from growing methods to propagation or culinary uses of any herb or vegetable you care to imagine is stored in the Magic Man’s head. add this to the fact that his operation is completely organic, and he has the companion-planting, insect-preying, moon-planting, seed-banking bible stored in there too makes him a special kind of Magic.

Camilla takes a guided tour with Steve on one of our Thursday outings

i believe my wife has fallen hopelessly in love with him and is completely obsessed with his produce. each wednesday, there’s a long phone call with whispers of blossoms and stalks and heads. bunches of this and kilos of that. each menu she’s designed since she met him on one of our thursday trips about a month ago has been like an ode to the Magic Man.

in fact she won’t craft a menu until she’s chatted to Steve and weighed the merits of a seasonal beetroot against a sauce for the beef. witness last week’s menu when she changed the sauce for the fillet from red wine jus to mustard because it would complement Steve’s beetroots in the tarte tatin. Ooh ooh ooh! Steve, Steve, Steve! anyone can grow a beetroot or an Egyptian carrot. what am i? chopped liver?

apparently not. but if you want to know what will go perfectly with that chopped liver – who you gonna call? 22 years of growing produce have made him an incredible asset to a chef. he’s always ready with a suggestion and he is obsessed with finding new plants and new varieties of old favourites. he doesn’t have something you want to play with in the kitchen, he’ll find it and grow it for you, both because of the commercial imperative and because he is just so curious and up for a challenge.

the Magic Man in his element

for a business that started in the back yard of a house in a tiny village in the Western Cape, he has developed an incredible network too. there are contacts and friends constantly sourcing new things – another broad bean to add to the 4 varieties already producing. or a white carrot to go with the purple and yellow ones that are almost ready in the beds on the back lot.

all this makes for an incredible amount of temptation for an adventurous cook like Camilla. when Nigel – Steve’s gently humorous driver – arrives in Paarl every friday with our delivery, i get to scrutinise the bill while the cook opens each carefully packed box with delighted squeals and gasps. And it’s not just the quality of the produce, its the care with which it is harvested, cleaned and packed by his staff that keeps people coming back for more.

“What do we need so many pea shoots for?”

“They’re for the beetroot tarte tatin. Aren’t they gorgeous?”

“A kilo of baby leaves? Seriously?”

“But they’re amazing! Look how many different micro herbs and things are in them. People are going to love the chicken liver salad! What’s that word you always say? It’s all about abundance.”

for someone like Camilla who is all about finding the best ingredients and making food out of the most amazing produce, Steve the Magic Man is like the Pied Piper. he’s the guy with the keys to the sweetie shop. and yes, my wife get’s all doe-eyed at the mention of his root vegetables. certainly, we’ve started ordering a little extra so we can take some of his produce home. but if this is the price we have to pay for having an exceptional provisioner in our corner – bring it on. Steve the Magic Man… take a bow!

special care is taken over the harvesting and cleaning of every item by staff who've been with the Magic Man for years

mozzarella baked in a lemon shell with bay leaf

ok. that’s the fourth phone call asking about the mozzarella we served on the weekend. people either want to know how we prepared it, or where we got the cheese. so here it is…

first of all – the recipe. there really isn’t one. it’s an adaptation of an early Jamie Oliver dish that we just love. the thing about great ingredients and simple preparation is that no one believes it could be that easy. there has to be a trick – but there isn’t – unless you think keeping things as simple as possible is a trick. Camilla juices the lemons after halving them, scoops out the flesh, places 40-50g mozzarella in the lemon shell, pins a fresh bay leaf to it with a toothpick and pops it in the oven at 200°C for ten minutes or so to melt the cheese.

the original recipe calls for anchovies and other variants, but to add too much is to digress from the original point which is to infuse quality mozzarella with a subtle lemon tang. it’s all about the cheese and its quality. if you go down to the local cafe and buy a tennis ball loosely disguised as a ball of mozzarella, the end result will be a soggy white tennis ball with lemon and bay flavour. But use a great cheese, made by an artist, and you will have guests asking for the recipe and the provenance – which is how i find myself at the keyboard this morning.

the boys from Puglia (L to R) Fabio, Cosimo, Davide

the cheese comes from Puglia. not the actual southern Italian province – rather it comes from the artisan cheesery opened in Cape Town last year by three Italian boys from Puglia. within 10 months of opening their doors, they were scooping an armful of prizes at the SA Dairy Awards for a mozzarella which is frankly streaks ahead of anything produced locally.

nodini are little knots of fresh mozzarella - guess the nickname for the matured mozarella in the background

Davide Ostuni has always had a love affair with Cape Town. he first arrived on holiday from Italy with his South African girlfriend nearly twenty years ago. a few holidays in Cape Town later, he met Ursula and married her, cementing the South African connection – but he would have to wait more than a decade before the dream of relocating here would come true. there would be family commitments, a life in the UK along with a successful restaurant in London before that would happen. finally though, the pace and pressure of life there brought on the moment… he looked at Ursula, Ursula looked at him, they glanced at their two kids and said “Let’s just go…”

On arrival, he called his childhood friend Fabio Fatelli, a restaurateur from the part of Puglia where Davide grew up. “ciao Fabio! I got this idea…” always the adventurer, Fabio hopped a flight and came to have a look. Inevitably with expatriates, they look around and can’t find the things they like to cook with. the charcuterie was pretty good, the fresh produce excellent, but the mozzarella? tennis balls. and it just so happened that Fabio knew a master cheese maker – Cosimo Rotolo.

When you speak to Davide Ostuni, you realise immediately that he’s one of those Italians. the ones that grow up helping in the family kitchen with making the pasta, preserving the tomatoes, making the wine and pickling the artichokes or mushrooms while the rabbit is simmering on the stove. he’s the sort that doesn’t need a recipe to put a feast on the table, because an appreciation of food is imprinted in his genetic material. it’s the same with Fabio – tell him you have a restaurant and he’ll immediately start sharing recipes for special regional dishes you just have to serve.

master cheese maker Cosimo Rotolo

Cosimo is a different fellow entirely. quiet and tireless, he works at one thing with complete dedication: mozzarella. He is a master cheesemaker in the real sense of the word, with a long apprenticeship in a proper Puglian cheesery and subsequent renown as a craftsman behind him  – he makes his cheese entirely by feel. no measuring water or salt or curds. he can tell when the cheese is ready to stretch by pinching it – like the buttocks of a cheeky girlfriend.

as Fabio says, they were completely crazy. there was no market research, no painstaking business planning. they all met up in cape town, looked around a bit and decided what South Africans needed was excellent mozzarella. they were right, but it was still a risk.

their first task was to find a source of good milk. some exhaustive research led them to two small dairy farmers in the Boland who pasture their herds, one Jersey and the other Ayrshire. with this in hand, the next task was to try out the cheese by cooking it up in a 50 litre pot. premises were found in Montague Gardens, deals were struck and production begun.

somewhere in all of this they met Giorgio Nava and started supplying his Kloof street mozzarella bar. they also found themselves in rented tuxedos one night for joy as they picked up not one, but four awards at the SA National Dairy Championships. then i got sent to do a story about them for the Sunday Times by Neil Roake, and i tasted the cheese and brought some home for Camilla…

and that’s the story, in essence, of where we got that mozzarella. you can tell we really like it, and we really like the people who make it.

Puglia Cheese: 021 551 8538, www.pugliacheese.co.za

stretching the mozzarella gives it it's sheen

cutting the curds before draining them of the whey