There are my favourite mom-and-pop restaurants where I tend to linger over long conversations and multiple bottles of vino. Then there are the ones that elicit a different kind of dialogue: the molecular gastronomy guys (more men than women follow this curious path) and often confusingly, the fusion cuisine followers.
My long visits to La Colombe in Cape Town have always turned into a truly faultless experience. Every since Executive Chef Luke Dale-Roberts took over in 2006 – and I think I was one of the first food writers to taste his no-comprise attitude to all that it takes to create a delightful and delicious dining experience – the restaurant (the sublime cuisine, the inspired wine list, the warm and always meticulously professional service, and oh, that French Provincial ambience) has been impeccable.
La Colombe, one of Cape Town’s most well-loved and awarded restaurants has now achieved an impressive 12th place in The San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants of the World awards, announced in London last night. It has moved up 26 places and into the hallowed Top 20 and now this bastion of contemporary French-meets-Asian fine dining thereby also clinched the Aqua Panna best restaurant in Africa and Middle East award.
Dale-Roberts and the La Colombe team join culinary luminaries such as Ferran Adrià, whose famed concept-driven restaurant El Bulli was shifted into second place from last year’s number one rating by 32-year-old wünderkind Rene Redzepi, head chef at Copenhagen gourmet destination Noma.
The awards, organized by the UK’s Restaurant Magazine tallied votes from an Academy of over 800 esteemed international critics, journalists and food experts to establish the hallowed annual list of the best names and places in the world of gourmet dining.
Another Cape Town based restaurant on the list at number 31 this year, up six places, is Le Quartier Français, home of fellow culinary talent Margot Janse.
La Colombe, winner of both Chef of the Year and Restaurant of the Year in the Prudential Eat Out Awards 2008, was also honoured with the prestigious Eat Out Restaurant of the Year title for 2009.
