Buitenverwachting vs Ginja

Two chefs, two judges and one award-winning wine whose identity has been withheld from all involved... "Create a dish to match it," was our instruction to the chefs. Joanne Simon takes a ringside seat and watches the judges in action.

THE CONTESTANTS
Edgar Osojnik, Buitenverwachting, Klein Constantia Road, Constantia. Tel 021 794 3522.

Mike Bassett, Ginja, 121 Castle Street, Cape Town. Tel 021 426 2368.

THE JUDGES
Justine Drake, editor of WINE magazine's 2006 Top 100 Restaurant guide, cookery writer, food stylist and presenter of BBC Food series Just in Africa.

Juleta Hirner, Longevity magazine food editor, food stylist and self-described lover of eating and drinking.

THE MYSTERY WINE
Kleine Zalze Shiraz Family Reserve 2003, winner of the 2005 WINE magazine TOPS at SPAR Shiraz Challenge.

t was only about four months ago that I really discovered the joys of Shiraz," confesses celebrity chef Justine Drake. "Before that I just didn't get the whole peppery, spicy thing - probably because I was so busy trying to be Proudly South African with Pinotage!"

But with more and more top wine producers shifting focus away from Pinotage to Shiraz as the red grape variety they believe will fly the flag highest for the Cape wine industry, there's no need for her to worry about taking unpatriotic sips of this year's Shiraz Challenge winner. Not that she appears to be having any twinges of conscience: "I'm having a lovely time," she tells Buitenverwachting restaurant manager Jürgen Welp, who duly asks whether she'd like her glass topped up. "Abso-bloody-lutely!"

Justine is about to enjoy the first of two meals with fellow foodie Juleta Hirner, whom she describes as follows: "She knows a duck from a duckling; she's incredibly talented; and she's my best friend!" The occasion (not that these two need one) is a chef shootout between Buitenverwachting executive chef Edgar Osojnik and Mike Bassett of Ginja fame, who have each been given an unlabelled bottle of the winning Shiraz and tasked with finding its perfect food match.

ROUND ONE:
BUITENVERWACHTING

Edgar, who originally hails from Austria and has been combining "contemporary fine-dining with South African friendliness" at Buitenverwachting since 1997, explains the creative process: "I sat down to taste the wine with the owner, Lars Maack, and our winemaker, Hermann Kirschbaum, and our conclusion was that this is a versatile wine. It has very nice aromatics and good acidity but lacks a bit in body, which makes it good for quite a wide range of food."

He goes on: "Because the wine has a smoky character, I came up with a variation of smoked Magret duck breast. But then Lars suggested that we should make this more exciting for you by modifying a yellowtail dish from our à la carte menu..."

Serving red wine with fish may be unusual but this particular combination, in theory at least, sounds promising: "We picked up a lot of spice in the wine so we decided to serve the fish with a red wine sauce scented with cinnamon and anise," explains Edgar, whose own suggestion nonetheless makes a surprise appearance as an amuse bouche, comprising dainty slices of smoked breast along with date confit, foie gras, mousseline, butter-soaked brioche and fig coulis.

"Mmm-mmm," sighs Juleta. "This is possibly the most superb smoked duck I've ever tasted! What I particularly like is that it's not so smoked that it overpowers the wine - instead, it really brings out those spicy Shiraz aromatics."

Justine, meanwhile, is in foie gras heaven. "I can't help loving it, which I know is unfortunate - those poor ducks! - but it's just the sexiest stuff. And here it's so rich, creamy and over-the-top that the Shiraz doesn't overtake it - in fact, somehow this wine makes it live on in the mouth."

But both judges are less bowled over by the date confit and fig coulis: "I'm very happy to be shoving them down my throat but they're not particularly good wine matches, perhaps because they're too sweet for this savoury wine," reckons Juleta. "Not a disaster," agrees Justine, "but they overtake things more than the duck and the foie gras, which really stand out. Still, a lovely journey of tastes..."

Next up is the yellowtail, which is grilled and served with a ring of bacon, roasted vegetables and boiled potatoes in a spring onion and caper foam. "Nothing like a bit of shampoo on your spuds!" quips Justine, who declares the fish to be beautifully cooked but the dish, overall, to be "pretty bland". Juleta agrees: "I think the sauce probably complements the wine but there's not enough of it to taste properly - it's just a garnish; a decoration."

She asks for more sauce and things start looking up: "Yes, now we have a wine match - those spicy flavours do provide the link," says Justine. "But the fundamental problem here is that the match isn't the whole dish, it's the sauce only, which means it might as well be accompanying chicken or meat. I can't help feeling that this fish died in vain."

ROUND TWO:
GINJA

If Buitenverwachting has provided an ideal venue for lunch, with its spectacular views of mountain vineyards, then Ginja, a favourite haunt of film crews visiting the Mother City, proves the perfect place for a night on the town.

"I am so excited I could faint!" gushes Justine at the sight of Mike Bassett's creation. But first, his business partner Gary Wright explains the thought behind it: "First I tasted the wine, which I thought had lots of spice and a lovely earthiness to it, and then Mike worked around that."

And boy did he work - the sauce for the venison component alone took 12 hours and a staggering four kilograms of carrots went into making enough confit for three... "What can I say? Mike's a pedantic perfectionist," Gary beams with pride.

Mike's own breakdown of the dish hardly does it justice: "It's just meat and beetroot on toast." But what actually has Justine and Juleta so impressed even before taking a bite is the dramatic presentation of beetroot jelly served with a "shot" (in a test-tube) of golden beetroot; slices of farmed venison served with a wild venison reduction; chopped marrow brioche baked inside a marrow bone; and Jerusalem artichoke soup, topped with a farmed baby abalone and a siu mai dumpling filled with wild abalone.

"And there I was, expecting McDonalds," teases Justine. "Well, I'm the first to admit that I like a greasy hamburger," responds Mike in all seriousness. "But this couldn't just be a meal to fill you up - an award-winning wine deserves award-winning presentation, and then my rule of thumb is that the food must live up to it presentation."

So does it? "I completely get the logic of the earthiness," says Juleta. "Everything on this plate is earthy, from the artichoke soup - God, I want some more of this stuff - to the beetroot, a vegetable which always tastes of the soil. I feel like a hobbit, right now! I'm Frodo - my toes are in the ground! But the abalone... Well, my personal opinion is that this wine doesn't go with seafood by any stretch of the imagination. It's too earthy."

"Yes," agrees Justine. "The abalone is divine on its own but when you sip the wine, the flavour just stops. It's like a commercial break. Then you take the beetroot, and its earthiness continues when you have a sip of the wine. It's a sublime flow of flavours, and the venison is an equally faultless match. With its velvety richness and the depth of flavour that can only come from a wild kudu that has eaten half a kilometre of fynbos in its life, it might fight for stage space with, say, a big Cab. But here the
flavours genuinely meet, and the buttery marrow brioche - decadent in the extreme! - is also a lovely foil."

Her conclusion? "Apart from the abalone, all the food and wine flavours continue to be individuals but in a good marriage, living happily ever after."

THE VERDICT
Both chefs have impressed but neither has scored full marks. So do we have a winner? "Had Edgar stopped after his triumph with the duck and foie gras, this would have been an almost impossible decision to make," says Juleta. "But unfortunately he also served the fish, where only the sauce worked - and it was only a dribble on the plate. For me, Mike has clinched the deal by taking his dish into the vegetable realm. Why do so many hoity-toity chefs ignore vegetables?"

Justine makes the point that, as judges, they are being hypercritical. "But even if we ignore the yellowtail and focus on Edgar's duck and foie gras... Well, let's face it, it's not all that difficult to triumph with foie gras - you just frighten it a little in the pan when actually the poor duck has done all the work! What I like about Mike's dish is that he has gone the extra mile to provide the fanfare due to an award-winner."

Which brings us back to the wine, at last unveiled on page 34 as Kleine Zalze's Shiraz Family Reserve 2003. "Call it what you like," concludes Juleta. "All I know is that it's delicious!"