Cooking at home with Darren Roberts
“To make special baked beans you need cream, beef stock granules, a leeetle bit of garlic and a tin of baked beans.” I thought I was in Franschhoek to chat with Grande Provence executive chef Darren Roberts about food and wine, but instead, the kitchen seemed to be full of other, equally competent cooks mixing, shelling, peeling and chatting about recipes – and not one of them old enough to drink alcohol. Welcome to the home of the Roberts family – 15-year-old Natasha, 11-year-old Victoria and nine-year-old Alexandra who was divulging her secret recipe for baked beans. In the background, Darren was overseeing matters with a wry smile, while mom Amanda cleared away dishes, poured wine and answered the phone with Maggie and Tom, the dogs, milling around underfoot. It was a typical family kitchen scene and that, according to Darren, is how it is all the time in his house – full of noise, activity, chatter and children.
Picture by Riehan Bakkies
Darren’s childhood kitchen memories of growing up in Melbourne, Australia, are completely different from this, starting with his mother who was “the worst cook in the world”, but who inspired Darren to take an interest in food from an early age. He was one of the first boys to learn home economics at school (a subject chosen mainly to annoy the teacher who thought boys had no business learning to cook!) and then, just before his 15th birthday, he became an apprentice at the top training kitchen in Australia. He followed this up with studies in Vienna and London and worked in restaurants and kitchens around the world before arriving in Johannesburg with South African Amanda and setting up his first restaurant 20 years ago. A few restaurants, a spell at Fancourt Golf estate, four years in the Seychelles and three daughters later, he came to Franschhoek to take over at Grande Provence.
Nowadays, Darren’s cooking style is very Pacific Rim, but his first restaurant menu, framed on the dining room wall, looks very different. “I love to look at these prices” laughs Darren, pointing out ‘sautéed queen prawns in garlic and pernod – R12.50’ and ‘fillet of beef topped with café de Paris butter – R21.95.’ “Can you imagine paying that little, and yet when we opened up, we were the first restaurant in Joburg to charge more than R50 for a three-course meal!” His cooking revolves around time-honoured traditions “We always have a stockpot on the go at the restaurant”, but when he cooks at home with the family, everything slows down and he prefers to make ‘normal food’ such as stir fries, pasta, pizza and, erm, prawn tom yum risotto which, frankly, is not a dish that immediately springs to mind as a typical family meal. But “it’s my favourite” volunteers nineyear- old Alexandra, “although sometimes Dad does make it too hot!”
As Darren sweats off onions and leeks for the risotto, he happily confesses to lots of shortcuts in his home-cooking which he would never do at work, including stock granules from Ina Paarman (thankfully not in the risotto – he used fresh stock from the restaurant for that), bought-in tom yum paste and even twominute noodles which are his favourite late-night snack after a hard evening shift. He pours himself a glass of Grande Provence Sauvignon Blanc and then tips some of it into the sautéed veggies before adding the rice and other ingredients, giving it a stir and then taking a long appreciative pull at his glass. Is that how you normally use wine in your cooking?
“Yeah, some in the glass, some in the pot.” And what about using wine when you’re cooking for the kids? “It’s no problem, the alcohol always boils away so it’s fine.”
A typical Aussie, Darren loves his beer, especially a cold Heineken. When it comes to wine and food matching, he believes most of it comes down to common sense. Last year he spent a week at the Hong Kong Country Club as guest chef giving demonstrations and cooking classes. “Everyone loved the Grande Provence wines because they’re so food-friendly and well-balanced – they don’t try to take over the dish.” He tends to prefer Sauvignon Blancs, citing Cloudy Bay as a favourite “when I can get hold of it”, but the best wine match he’s ever had was between lamb essence – a hugely reduced lamb stock turned into a soup with pearl barley – and the Grande Provence Chardonnay. “It was great,” he says, and pauses wistfully for a second, before taking another slug of Sauvignon Blanc and turning to see how Victoria is getting on with peeling the prawns.
Of the three girls, it is Victoria who is most interested in cooking – both her sisters raved about the chocolate chip pancakes she makes for them on weekends. When the children were small, Darren was working in relatively isolated places with little or no facilities for them and, as a result, they all grew up hanging around kitchens and learning to mix cakes. “That’s the first thing most kids learn because it’s easy and you can eat the results!”
Watching Darren working the pasta machine with Victoria, while Natasha cut out pastry circles and Alexandra rushed off to show her mom her very own dumpling which she had made all by herself, it is easy to see why people call a kitchen ‘the heart of a home’. Like all parents, Darren and Amanda worry about what their kids eat – they try to avoid junk food for the most part (but are philosophical about the odd McDonalds once in a while), sneak vegetables into as many dishes as possible and try to give their children a robust and healthy attitude towards food – something which Amanda, in particular, thinks is extremely important.
Well, there were certainly plenty of healthy attitudes and interest towards the apple frangipane – mine included! As Darren hauled it out of the oven and dusted on the icing sugar (“Chefs’ trick to cover up the cracks!”), I asked him what changes he had seen in South African restaurants over the years. “Oh you get far more choice these days, particularly from the suppliers. Chefs are travelling more, studying overseas, doing time in other kitchens and they’ve brought new ideas and techniques back home.” He sees increasing customer interest in where food comes from and how it is grown or raised, something which he bears in mind when placing orders. “We always try to use stuff like SASSI-approved fish, and I would never buy anything from these guys at the back door with carrier bags-full of crayfish. I did have someone come round and offer me a porcupine the other day though.” Did you buy it? “Naw, I’ve never cooked porcupine before,” he said as he took another suck of wine. “But they say it tastes good.”
As we are clearing up the kitchen at the end of the afternoon, the girls come in to say goodbye. They’ve put away most of the food that’s been cooked during the afternoon and all of them are looking slim, healthy and bouncing with energy. “Where are you going now?” I asked. “Out for pizza!” they chorus and charge off to the car with their mother. Darren raises his eyebrows with a mixture of admiration and outright amazement at their appetites, shakes his head, smiles and pours the final drops of Sauvignon Blanc, “Kids – you gotta love ‘em!”
Pork dumplings
250g lean pork mince
3 T sesame oil
2 T minced garlic
1 T chopped coriander
¾ cup dry roasted peanuts
2 T fish sauce
3 T palm sugar
½ t ground pepper
1 red chilli finely chopped
1 spring onion finely chopped
1 juice and zest of lime
salt to taste
500g plain flour
50ml olive oil
300ml hot water
pinch of salt
1. Mix the pork mince, sesame oil, garlic, coriander, peanuts, fish sauce, palm sugar, ground pepper, chilli, spring onion, lime and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Place the flour, salt and oil in another bowl, gradually mixing in the hot water until the pastry forms a ball. Cover with cling film and place in fridge to rest until cool.
3.Once cool, flour a work surface and roll out the pastry until approximately 2mm thin. Cut out circles of roughly 8cm in diameter. Place a small amount of pork mince mixture into each one and roll up into a crescent shape.
4. Line a bamboo steamer with non-stick baking paper and steam dumplings over hot water for about six minutes.
Serve with red bean chilli sauce and kikkoman soya sauce.
Wine pairing: Grande Provence Sauvignon Blanc
Apple Frangipane
PASTRY
100g sugar
200g butter
300g plain our
pinch of salt
1 egg
1. Mix the flour, sugar and cold butter in a mixer or between the finger tips until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Add egg and mix until a dough forms. Allow to rest for one hour.
2. Line a 20cm flan tin with rested pastry. Blind bake for 10 minutes at 180ºC.
FILLING
250g unsalted butter
250g ground almonds
50g plain our
4 eggs
250g caster sugar
1t vanilla essence
1 large tin apple slices
100g caster sugar
1t cinnamon
½t nutmeg
1. To make the frangipane mixture, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla essence. In a separate bowl, combine
the flour and ground almonds. Add eggs to the creamed mixture and gently fold in the flour and almond mixture.
2. Combine together the apple, caster sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Place a layer of the apple mixture in the bottom of the pie lining.
3. Cover with the frangipane mixture to the top of the pie crust and bake in oven at 160ºC for approximately 45 minutes or until the frangipane mixture feels firm.
WINE PAIRING: CHAMONIX GRAPPA
NO KITCHEN SHOULD BE WITHOUT...
Darren’s kitchen cupboard essentials:
Tinned tomatoes
Onions
Dried pasta
Garlic
Olive oil
sweet pastry and biscuit mix in the fridge
Darren’s essential tools
KitchenAid mixer
Dynamic stick blender
Trident knives
