Monday, April 04, 2011
Bjorn to cook
A gleaming soup spoon peeks out of the left-sleeve pocket of Bjorn Dingemans’s chef’s jacket after a relatively quiet lunch service. “You won’t find any fingers in my pots,” smiles the 23-year-old head chef with quite an enviable air of confidence.
We’re sitting on the airy stoep of what has been hailed by some as the Franschhoek Valley’s newest ‘it’ eatery, The Franschhoek Kitchen, which Bjorn just happens to run. “I think I might actually the youngest head chef in the country,” says Bjorn, who qualified at the ICA before earning his stripes working alongside Peter Tempelhoff at The Greenhouse and Ronnie Bonetti at Babington House Boutique Hotel in Somerset, England. Asked how he ended up in such a senior position during the springtime of his life, he answers matter-of-factly, “I think it all came down to luck and skill.”
The Franschhoek Kitchen is situated on the Holden Manz Estate, which many may still remember by its former name, Klein Genot. Its owners, Migo Manz and Gerard Holden first became enamoured with Bjorn when he was working at Babington House. “Ronnie used to be the head chef of River Café, so I was always moving between the two restaurants, exchanging knowledge and getting trained up in the process,” explains Bjorn. “I also got to cook with Jamie Oliver once for a club supper, which was a great experience. He’s exactly like he is on TV.”
No doubt inspired by Babington’s walled-in veggie garden, Bjorn’s first priority upon being appointed at The Franschhoek Kitchen by Migo and Gerard late last year was to cultivate a garden so that the restaurant could be as green and self-sufficient as possible. “Since we’re at the end of the season, it’s looking a little forlorn at the moment,” he says. “But we’ve just sown the seeds of our winter veggies, so it should be well on its way again within a week or so. The soil is incredibly fertile.”
Bjorn continues to say that he’s equally spoilt for choice when it comes to fresh fruit growing in the farm’s orchards, which are currently hanging heavy with apples and pears. He’s also keen on the idea of foraging for fresh ingredients outside of the farm’s boundaries, especially now that it’s turning nippy. “There’s a forest close by where I like to go mushroom picking,” he says. “At the moment there are these enormous wild mushrooms growing on the trees that look just like corals, called Chicken of the Woods. I’m planning to use them in a wild-mushroom risotto that’s going to feature on my upcoming winter menu.”
At the moment, the menu is between seasons, featuring light, summery dishes like Bjorn’s signature starter of Madagascan sea bass carpaccio with lemon juice, olive oil and dried chilli flakes, and heartier eats like handmade agnolotti filled with rabbit ragu topped with burnt sage butter, and honey-and-soy-roasted duck with grapefruit, blueberries and sweet-potato crisps.
Pulsed about what sets The Franschhoek Kitchen apart in the epicurean epicentre it finds itself in, Bjorn’s answer is immediate: “I think the main problem with Franschhoek is that there are too many French fine dining-restaurants where the emphasis is on being conceptual with plating and colour rather than flavour. To me, it’s not about taking a beetroot, changing its colour to green and making it taste like mango. My approach is more Italian. I believe you should cook a beetroot as well as you can to bring out its natural flavour. You definitely won’t ever find me doing a foam.”
I think that it’s exactly this unfussy, traditional approach that people are finding so refreshing in Bjorn’s fare. There’s no trace of theatrics or gimmicks. Just a trusty soup spoon.
