Le Soufflè
Drooling fans have followed him from his first restaurant, Le Francais in Johannesburg’s Rosebank Mall via the legendary Ile de France, first in Dunkeld, then Cramerview. Then an inspired decision to create a more pocket-friendly menu and ambience resulted in Bistro 277 on Main.
It was after all the years of working virtually around the clock, the Guèberts decided to open le Soufflé, the all-day eatery that allows them to close the doors at the end of the day and go home “like normal people”.
Le Soufflé is the queen bee in what is an otherwise unappetizing Fourways; it has created an almost constant buzz in the unprepossessing little Pineslopes shopping centre, off Witkoppen road opposite Montecasino. But don’t let that deter you.
Le Soufflé has a French bistro feel with an open-plan look to part of the kitchen, check tablecloths and tables that spill over onto a covered verandah. With the all-day menu the clientele – from the greater Fourways area that includes the glitter pit of Dainfern – flock for the menu that the Guèberts have cleverly constructed: breakfast for early risers, snacks through the day, lunch that could stretch through to closing time.
A typical roomful of happy diners might include members of a book club, a couple of tables of suits holding business meetings, and a family entertaining their granny from the Old Country.
Guèbert is uncompromising in his commitment to creating food that has at its core, classic principles. Like an awardwinning garden, his dishes on the ‘specials’ list are well-loved and cared-for perennials, and always seasonal, returning as the annual calendar progresses to yield again a herby summer salad or a robust soup. On a perfect blue-sky summer’s day, I had the spinach and bacon salad. The grated egg was not hard-boiled, but that soft moist unctuousness that it becomes at the precise instant that the egg is nabbed from the boiling water.That takes skill. Young spinach, decidedly marriage material. That takes dedication.
The bacon was uncompromisingly top quality. Other salads: goose liver pate served with grapes, apples, walnuts and an orange dressing; grilled vegetables; rather idiosyncratically, pizza (pizza base topped with cherry tomatoes, cashew nuts and pecorino shavings).My other favourite that I pop in to devour – much like a chocoholic does when the fridge light goes on after midnight – is the bone marrow on toast in a red wine sauce. Definitely permanently on my list of ‘100 dishes to demolish with gluttonous dedication’.
To my mind baking presents absolute proof that cooks are alchemists. The soufflé, however, is created by the magus. Thus, the magician has as his trademark piece de resistance, the soufflé that now appears either as a savoury starter or main course (a choice that includes mushroom and cheese, shrimp and asparagus and smoked salmon and spinach) or sweet (mouthwatering delights like candied fruit and Kirshwasser, coffee and Kahlua, lemon, chocolate or vanilla and that joy of joys, the one that is synonymous with the Guèbert name, the Grand Marnier).
Other starters, a list that includes pancakes (crispy duck, say), or an authentic Parisian onion soup.There are pies and pastas, fish (try the crab cakes served on a Cajun Remoulade sauce) and meat.
Main courses (great for long weekend lunches) include Beef Tartare, broiled lamb crown chop with thyme and rosemary, beef sirloin or a herby chicken breast. French burgers (the bread roll is superfluous) sanely served with chips (er, French fries) and vegetables. Variations include a goose liver pate.
This is the way I like my food. Humbug I say, to superstructures and their trumped-up first cousin, deconstruction.
I love this world trend of simplifying food; of quality rather than smoked sensations and mirrors.
All in all, it’s a fabulously affordable menu with a matching wine list (local and some internationals) that promotes congeniality and – designed for people like me – good South African bubbly by the glass.
Average price excluding wine: R40 – R120
By Gwynne Conlyn
Address: Pineslopes Shopping Centre,
Witkoppen Road, FOURWAYS.
Tel: 011 465 4116
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