Carlton Café Delicous vs La Madeleine
Daniel Leusch of La Madeleine 122 Priory Road, Lynnwood, Pretoria Tel 012 361 3667
THE JUDGES Gwynne Conlyn, food & travel writer, author of Delicious Travel (Culinary Adventures around South Africa).
Anna Trapido, Sunday Independent food writer, chef/lecturer at the Prue Leith College of Food and Wine.
THE MYSTERY WINE Saxenburg Private Collection Shiraz 2003
Our culinary love story began when unlabelled bottles of red wine were delivered to Pretoria café queen Rachel Botes at Carlton Delicious and to Daniel Leusch at the capital's premier fine dining restaurant, La Madeleine. Neither chef knew the identity of what was later revealed as Saxenburg Private Collection Shiraz 2003 but both interpreted its core features to perfection.
Just as the preppy hero and the scholarship girl in Segal's pulp fiction novel Love Story are an unlikely pair, so it was with our chefs du jour. The choice of contenders for the Shiraz chef shootout was unconventional as the restaurants are superficially quite different in style. Botes is a relative newcomer to the Pretoria food scene and provides outstanding but un-fussed daytime deli dining, while Leusch has specialized superbly in the glamour of the gourmet gluttony for the past 30 years. If you want the best, most innovative sandwich in South Africa, Rachel's your girl. If you want to celebrate your golden wedding anniversary in style, Daniel will feed you so perfectly that you will want to do it all again and again.
Despite their apparent differences, what they have in common is a thoughtful flavour flair which made them worthy, if unusual adversaries. Both chefs chose to pair the food and the wine and to use the wine as a core ingredient in their dishes. Despite only needing to make one course, both chose to make two. Their interpretations of the wine and its food combining potential were at once reassuringly similar and deliciously distinct.
As Rachel put down a bread basket filled with buttery brioche straight from her oven she explained that "I don't really believe in wine waffle. When other people say things like 'I sense a whiff of toasted brioche' I feel quite uncomfortable." She chose the elements in her meal "because I have recently been re-reading Leipoldt and I have been very inspired by the way in which he cooks with wine. Even though he was writing in the 1940s he feels so modern to me. He was such a pioneer in the way that we all cook with wine in South Africa today. He leaves the food very unfussy so as not to mess up the wine. I like that his flavours are masculine and full but that the preparation is light. The wine is a core taste, texture and colour component for Leipoldt. That is what I was trying to achieve with my meal."
In line with the simplicity of this approach, Rachel found that "the wine was so distinctive and I wanted its flavours to be the star of the dish - so I simply sealed the ox cheek and then braised it in the wine. I didn't even use stock or garlic. I hope that the wine flavour will resonate undisturbed by extraneous influences." She chose ox cheek because "for me the rich velvety texture of both the old fashioned meat cut and the wine felt nostalgically like those wines my parents used to call 'ox blood'. I was acknowledging where I come from and the fabulous fusion flavours of Afrikaans cuisine, and attempting to bring those into a modern context."
We knew we were on to a good thing when Rachel explained that she had given us both a spoon and the brioche "in order to mop up sauce". While the ox cheeks were undoubtedly the star of the plate, they were richly enhanced by the free form lasagna and green fig preserve that accompanied them. Parmesan shavings provided the perfect earthiness. The wine echoed the meatiness and supple textures of the beef.
The unctuous melt-in-the-mouth quality of the ox cheek was followed by achingly light, glittering sequins of Shiraz- macerated berry granita, garnished with fresh cherries. Rachel explained that this was her nod to the berry aromas in the wine. Gwynne commented that "the mélange of flavours make delicious music. There are harmonies on this plate that are at once ancient and modern in character. They are both profoundly South African and intensely international."
The theme of hearty flavours served light reappeared at La Madeleine. Daniel served Shiraz and clove-marinated oxtail on fettucini, complemented by prunes, salmon and pancetta. While the 'surf and turf' combination might seem odd to South Africans, Daniel explained that "within my Belgian culinary training this is a classical pairing." He chose to include cloves in the oxtail marinade "as a nod to the history of the Syrah grape, which I have read came to Europe via Crusaders returning from the Middle East. Cloves feel exotically Middle Eastern to me and I pick up these qualities in the wine."
There was a lovely lusciousness about the meat. Gwynne commented that the oxtail had been "perfectly caught in the moment of ultimate softness, before it simply melts away to nothing". The prunes provided a fabulous counterpoint to the robust meat and the combination of the ultra-tender oxtail and the rich succulent salmon was extraordinary. Daniel explained that he had used the pancetta because "while the wine is a pleasure to work with even now, it is relatively young and the powerful tannins are tamed by the fat and the bacon". He said that he "added a touch of chocolate to the meat jus sauce because I find chocolate notes in the wine and I think it gives richness and continuity that weaves everything together".
While Daniel's pudding did not include the wine in its ingredients it was nevertheless an astonishing exercise in wine and food matching. He said he chose the "grapefruit tartar with clove infused honey ice-cream to provide a counterpoint to the main course". When it arrived I protested that I would try a mouthful and stop because I was full, but I proceeded to finish all of my own plate and half of Gwynne's… Its controlled sweetness not only cut into the fat of the previous course but accentuated the memory of its beauty. Like a long married couple, the grapefruit of the pudding was in a dialogue with the main course, finishing its sentences and making it everything it could be. In soppy movies the heroine often tells the hero 'you complete me' but I have never seen it so perfectly demonstrated on a plate as we did at La Madeleine.
La Madeleine is a very different eatery to Carlton Delicious. The meal was more formal and less approachable in its style of preparation and presentation. The joy of mopping up excess sauce with fresh bread is not an option at La Madeleine because the portion sizes are more restrained and the atmosphere is more rarified. Despite the differences, there were key similarities between the two meals. Both worked in a manner that allowed sensual but muscular elements to shine in the food and the wine. Both drew on an instinctive flair for flavour overlaid with an intellectual exercise involving a love of food history. Both meals played with elements of sweet in the savoury. Both chefs drew on their cultural origins to develop plates in which the theme of musical harmony and layering of core flavours was played out. And in both cases they used the wine in a manner that made it the star of the meal.
By the end, Gwynne and I were so in love with our lunch that we would happily have married either Rachel or Daniel. They both displayed a profoundly impressive understanding of the wine and its potential as a culinary partner. Nigel Slater once said that "it is impossible not to love someone who makes you toast", and Rachel made us the most perfect toasted brioche that I have ever tasted outside of Paris. We loved her meal truly, madly and deeply. Ultimately Daniel's greater experience pushed his plates a soupçon ahead. Eric Segal said that "love means never having to say you're sorry" but we were extremely sorry to have to pick a winner when both meals were so spectacular. We will never be sorry that we ate them.
