LOOKING back on my trendspotting trip to the UK, it was the overwhelming greenness that struck me. And I’m not talking lush countryside. Supermarkets overflow with organic produce, sandwich chains trumpet free-range ingredients, and even cafés such as that at the Tate Britain offer the option of gluten-free bread.
Locally, we lag behind this eco-emphasis, but there’s a South African restaurant in London that’s waving the eco banner with the best: bbar, a few minute’s walk from Buckingham Palace. One exterior wall is entirely green, covered in plants that staff swear are their source of herbs for daily dishes.
There’s a great selection of inventive cocktails and a wine list highlighting Bouchard Finlayson’s best.
Welcoming serving staff are smart in black, with leopard-skin print aprons or ties; “on safari” decor blends style with comfort, accented by porcupine quill lampshades, African artefacts and photographs of big game.
The first stand-alone restaurant in the 15-member international Red Carnation collection, founded by Stanley and Bea Tollman, bbar typifies Bea’s insistence on freshness and simplicity. Combining style with substance, it catches today’s mood for tasty, honest food that satisfies the appetite without fussy overdecoration.
True, ingredients don’t follow the foodie-praised trend to foraging. The London parks are hardly fertile ground, nor is that green wall. Instead, the ground shifts to long-standing, dedicated suppliers. There was no need for the woman at the next table to sniff suspiciously at her wild boar and venison burger with quail egg, morog and chakalaka relish. Happily, having tasted, she mopped her plate.
With certain South African dishes (like boerewors), £1 (R15.86) is donated to the Sentebale charity, founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho. But the menu is not confined to South Africa. Perennial best-seller is the salt beef sandwich on rye, so generous that it defeated me. The beef is from Henson’s of Smithfield market, providers of London’s best salt beef since the turn of the 19th century. The accompanying coleslaw is crisply delicious, with coarsely grated broccoli and fennel replacing conventional cabbage. Developed by Bea to entice her children to eat broccoli, it went on to be a favourite on restaurant menus.
This “home-cooked” appeal characterises the dishes: Bea learnt her craft by being thrown into it. Stanley is a second-generation hotelier, and as the anonymous chef at their first hotel in Joburg, Bea pored over recipe books, experimented, and devised her own style. By the time they opened the trendsetting Hyde Park hotel with its sophisticated Colony restaurant, she was so accomplished that staff had to resort to subterfuge when guests wanted to meet the chef, saying he was so tired that he’d gone home. All this while bringing up four children.
Today, as president of the international group, she’s personally involved in every aspect of the collection – from decor to the choice of speciality salts for the tables – while her recipes have a special place in the restaurant repertoire. And given the influx of American visitors to London, the delights of bobotie spring rolls with Mrs Ball’s chutney are being tweeted daily from bbar to the US.