Text: Johan Liebenberg | Recipes and styling: Shaileen Davis | Photographs: Bruce Tuck. Article from the January 2015 issue of Food and Home Entertaining Magazine.
A look at the intriguing dialogue between art and gastronomy
Early last year, a pioneering new exhibition took place at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Paris. It was aptly named Cookbook – art and culinary process and looked at the relationship between art and cuisine, examining how dialogue between artists and chefs can influence aesthetics and trends in techniques in contemporary cooking. The exhibition was curated by a formidable team, comprising the chairman of The Worlds 50 Best Restaurant Awards, Andrea Petrini, and included the world’s top chefs, Ferran Adria and Massimo Bottura among others. It is purely coincidental that F&HE decided to examine the connection between art and gastronomy and chose Shaileen Davis, owner of The d’Vine Art Room at New Heritage Gallery in Heritage Square, Cape Town, who has an impeccable background in food.
Sitting across from Shaileen Davis (Shay) in a restaurant, sipping a glass of chardonnay on a surprisingly pleasant day in July, I asked her where it all began, her love of food. She had no hesitation in answering: “With my parents.”
At home, she told me, her father prepared spectacular savoury dishes; her mother the sweet stuff. His particular alchemy in the kitchen was matched only by his love of eating out and she joined her parents from a very young age, dining out in wonderful Durban restaurants.
Her father’s business associate was Mr Naicker. His wife was the undisputed Queen of Curries. “We enjoyed the most fragrant and delectable Hindu cuisine. Diwali was a particular treat with Mrs Naicker producing the most astounding jewel-like sweetbreads and palate-pleasing curries. Oh…” A look of nostalgia crossed Shay’s face as she recalled those glorious days, those spectacular dinners.
“When I went to Costa Rica, and married a diplomat, I carried the culinary soul of my parents in me,” she told me. There, in Costa Rica, she entertained lavishly. Oscar Arias Sanchez, twice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was a regular guest, as was Prince Albert II of Monaco. The French ambassador declared, after carefully dabbing his lips with a damask napkin, that her table was the best in Costa Rica. She often heard the words, “Me gusta su cuchara de madera”, which means “I love your wooden spoon!” This is the greatest compliment you can give a cook in Costa Rica.
Before Costa Rica and Monaco, there was a stint in London in the kitchen of Marco Pierre White’s restaurant, Harveys. Mr White owns and runs London’s first three Michelin star restaurant. As everyone well knows, he is an unpredictable man and this period could best be described as ‘colourful’.
In South Africa during the Nineties, with Johannesburg as her home, Shay cooked for Madiba, the Motsepes, Mr Mboweni, the Sexwales, as well as heads of major industries and banking from SA, UK and France – the list is long.
Her life was a fabulous tapestry, woven with real-life fairy tales and then, abruptly, one day, she left it all behind – this glamorous, glittering world. She departed like a woman leaving a dance early, not to take refuge in ordinariness, but to fulfil another of her dreams… to open an art gallery. New Heritage Gallery.
Today, gastronomy has developed to such an extent that it has stepped up to join the ranks of fine art. In some areas it has even supplanted fine art as the measure of things. You may be forgiven if you’ve never heard of the Italian painter, Lucio Fontana, but you will never, ever be forgiven if you don’t know what a rouille is! William Deresiewicz of The New York Times even observed:
The weekend chef is what the Sunday painter used to be
And so it came about that, on a fine day in October, Shay began wielding her wooden spoon. She’d begun prepping her dishes the night before. The venue was her Victorian cottage in Balfour Street, Woodstock. It is a delightful space – warm, inviting and eclectic. Yet, at the same time, each painting on the walls, I felt, had been selected with great care so that, in the end, the house contained all her memories.
She may have cooked for presidents and a Prince but, here, she proclaimed, she also cooks for paupers (I suspect the ‘paupers’ she referred to must be journalists!). Be that as it may, from early on the next morning, the day unfolded to reveal dish after magical dish with visual promise of each beautifully fulfilled on the palate.
The wines – it is difficult not to gush – were superb. The paintings, reproduced on canvas, took one on an aesthetic tour of the world, starting in Cape Town with Jan Vermeiren’s ‘Portrait of Shay’ and ending with Gregor Rohrig’s achingly hip Appropriation Art of ‘Little Miss Tretchikoff’; thus, the intriguing dialogue between art and gastronomy was eventually concluded with the final spoonful of meltingly delicious floating islands dessert. It was the conclusion, at least for now, of an odyssey that began in the kitchen where Shay’s father cooked, and taught his attentive daughter to cook many years ago. New Heritage Gallery, newheritagegallery.com
Jan Vermeiren’s ‘Untitled’ 1990 (Portrait of Shay) is about colourful, textured women, with splashes of colour (cobalt blue is a trademark colour), a fusion of cultures (Belgian and African), the duality of sweet and salty. I have long admired this gentle artist who adopted South Africa, hence the combination of a Belgian staple (soup), exotic flavouring (coconut milk and smoked paprika) with a South African-branded taste (lamb meatballs)
Roast butternut, apricot, mandarin and coconut-milk soup with spicy meatballs
Serves 4 EASY2 hrs
Pair with Vins d’Orrance Cuvee Anai’s Chardonnay 2012 by Christophe Durand
The flavour combinations
Soup
2 medium/large butternuts, halved and pips scooped out
3 medium leeks, chopped and drizzled with olive oil
125g dried apricots
zest and juice of 4 mandarins/small oranges
1,250L (5 cups) fresh chicken/ vegetable stock
1 x 410g tin coconut milk
22,5ml (11/2 tbsp) maple syrup
fleur de sel/sea salt and freshly ground white peppercorns, to taste
Lamb Meatballs
200g minced lamb
30ml (2 tbsp) chutney
30ml (2 tbsp) red onion, peeled
and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
15ml (1 tbsp) fresh parsley,
finely chopped
15ml (1 tbsp) fresh chervil,
finely chopped
15ml (1 tbsp) fresh rosemary,
finely chopped
15ml (1 tbsp) fresh thyme, chopped
15ml (1 tbsp) Dijon mustard freshly ground black pepper, to taste
10ml (2 tsp) fleur de sel/sea salt
15ml (1 tbsp) mango achar
100g coarse breadcrumbs + 250g extra, to roll the meatballs in
vegetable oil, to fry
bunch fresh sage leaves, to garnish smoked paprika, to serve
How to do it
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Place the butternut halves, cut side down, on an oiled baking tray and roast, 45 minutes. Add the leeks and apricots and roast for a further 15 minutes.
2. Scoop the flesh out of the butternuts and place in a large saucepan. Add the leeks, apricot, citrus zest and juice and stock. With the lid on, bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer, 45 minutes. The apricots should be soft.
3. Add the coconut milk and maple syrup then place in a blender and puree to make a soup. Season to taste.
4. For the spicy lamb meatballs, mix all of the ingredients together, except the breadcrumbs, in a food processor. Add the 100g breadcrumbs by hand and mix until combined, then roll small meatballs (about a tablespoon in size each) in the 250g breadcrumbs. Fry in hot oil, 6 minutes, turning halfway through. Drain on paper towel. 5 To serve, ladle the hot soup into warm bowls and top with the spicy meatballs. Finish with a few sage leaves and a sprinkling of smoked paprika.
Paul Gauguin’s ‘Three Tahitian Women’ 1896. The allegorical character of many of Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings (in which ideas from different cultures are fused together) is evident here. It embodies the island promise of undiscovered jewels, exoticism and the bounty of the sea… an artistic marriage of livelihood and indulgence
A ‘tail’ of two ceviches
Serves 4 EASY 30 mins + 24 hrs, to infuse
Pair with Chris Williams’ The Foundry Viognier 2013 – an exotic nose of expressive apricot, spring blossom and creamy citrus. Succulent, juicy and fresh!
The flavour combinations
Incense oil; (for the deconstructed Ceviche)
rind and juice of 2 small oranges rind of 2 lemons
2 star anise 2 cinnamon sticks small knob ginger, cut into fine slivers
5ml (1 tsp) cloves
5ml (1 tsp) each of the following
spices, ground and roasted for
2 minutes in a dry, non-stick pan:
cumin, ginger, allspice, paprika,
cloves, nutmeg, cayenne pepper and basil seeds
125ml (1/2 cup) walnut oil
125ml (1/2 cup) olive oil
45ml (3 tbsp) fish sauce
30ml (2 tbsp) light soya sauce
15ml (1 tbsp) mirin (rice wine)
Classic Ceviche
200g angelfish, skinned, deboned, filleted and chopped into 1cm cubes
2 red onions, peeled and finely sliced into circles
1 red and 1 yellow pepper, seeds removed and thinly sliced
1 bunch coriander, washed well, roots removed and finely chopped
juice of 4 lemons, rind kept aside for the deconstructed ceviche dish
juice of 5 limes
45ml (3 tbsp) fish sauce
15ml (1 tbsp) mirin (rice wine)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into slivers
1 jalapeno chilli, thinly sliced/small bird’s eye chilli, seeded
1 green mango, skin removed and grated
2 medium-sized red or white sweet potatoes, scrubbed (not peeled), cut into 3cm – 4cm rounds or 1/8 wedges and steamed for 20 minutes
60ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil, to fry fleur de sel/sea salt, to taste
1 bunch fresh coriander, rinsed, well-dried and roughly chopped
Deconstructed Ceviche
200g A-grade tuna, frozen for a few hours, then sliced paper-thin zest of 2 small oranges
How to do it
1. For the incense oil (for deconstructed ceviche), combine all of the ingredients and allow to infuse for 24 hours.
2. For the classic ceviche, combine all of the ingredients and store in a glass non-metallic container with the lid on, 2 hours.
3. Shallow-fry the sweet potato discs in the oil until golden brown, sprinkling liberally with salt, 2 minutes. Add the coriander at the end of the cooking time. Remove from the frying pan and drain on paper towel.
4. Assemble the classic ceviche on a flat dish and artfully arrange the sweet potatoes on top.
5. For the deconstructed ceviche, layer the slivers of fish in the incense oil half an hour before serving.
6. To assemble the deconstructed ceviche, lay the fish on the platter, drizzle with the oil and decorate with the orange zest and star anise (from the oil).
Christopher Dresser was a Scottish designer and design theorist of the 1800s and one of the first and most important independent designers – a pivotal figure in the Aesthetic Movement and a major contributor to the allied Anglo-Japanese (Modern English) style. ‘Reptilian Fabric’ (1887) echoes the neat and simple, classic yet striking taste of the dish featured: filo parcels hiding a surprise of taste and texture, the citrus Hollandaise masquerading as some gentle, delicate cover while surprising the palate with a lemon-lime zing…
White fish poached in Riesling and pink peppercorns, topped with a wine-cream reduction, prawn and fresh dill, wrapped in buttery filo
Serves 4 EASY 1 hr 30 mins
Pair withKlein Constantia Metis. Like Christopher, this Pascal Jolivet-inspired sauvignon blanc is ahead of its time
The flavour combinations
Poached Fish
375ml (11/2 cups) good-quality Riesling wine
15ml (1 tbsp) pink peppercorns
zest of 1/2 lemon 1 bay leaf
400g sustainable firm white fish
Bechamel
75g butter
8 prawns, 4 shelled and 4 kept unshelled/whole
15ml (1 tbsp) Pernod (dry vermouth)
30ml (2 tbsp) cake flour
250ml (1 cup) poaching liquid
30ml (2 tbsp) fresh lemon juice
4 filo pastry sheets
125g butter, melted, to brush
bunch fresh dill
1 lemon, sliced into wheels + extra, to garnish
Hollandaise
zest of 2 lemons
60ml (1/4 cup) fresh lemon juice
45ml (3 tbsp) fresh lime juice
30ml (2 tbsp) white balsamic vinegar
pinch whole, mixed peppercorns
2 eggs, separated
250g butter, gently melted but not boiled
freshly ground white pepper, to taste pinch fleur de sel/sea salt few stalks fresh dill, chopped + extra, to garnish courgette ribbons, sauteed for 2 minutes over high heat in olive oil, to serve
How to do it
1. Place the wine, peppercorns, lemon zest and bay leaf in a pot and bring to a simmer. Add the fish pieces and poach, 7-10 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish. Remove the fish and bay leaf. Reduce the poaching liquid to 250ml (1 cup), leaving the zest and peppercorns in the liquid. Set aside.
2. For the bechamel, melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Quickly toss all the prawns in the butter, for a minute or 2, adding the Pernod. Remove the prawns and set aside. Add the flour and whisk until the mixture is golden (not brown) and the flour is ‘cooked’, about 2-3 minutes. Add the 250ml (1 cup) hot poaching liquid and whisk vigorously to eliminate lumps. Allow to cook until the bechamel is very thick, 5-10 minutes. Stir in the fresh lemon juice and allow the mixture to cool.
3. Preheat the oven to 185°C – 190°C. Unroll a filo sheet on a damp tea towel and generously brush with melted butter. Place some fish in the bottom third area of the pastry (having divided the poached, cold fish into 4 portions). Top with a quarter of the bechamel. Add some dill, a lemon wheel and one of the shelled prawns.
4. Begin wrapping the parcel by brushing each fold and turn with melted butter. From the bottom, fold the flap over the filling, then tuck the left and right flaps (don’t forget the melted butter) over the centre. Once rolled up, make sure the final wrap (the edge of the filo) sits underneath. These parcels can be prepped a few hours ahead of time, if necessary. Repeat with the remaining pastry sheets and filling and bake in the oven, 30 minutes.
5. For the foaming lemon-lime Hollandaise, combine the lemon zest and juice and lime juice, white balsamic and peppercorns in a pot over medium heat and reduce by half. Discard the peppercorns.
6. Beat the egg yolks lightly for a few minutes and slowly add the warm, but not hot, lemon-lime reduction. In a steady stream, add the melted butter and season to taste with the pepper and salt. Allow to cool.
7. Whisk the egg whites with the dill until foamy but not too stiff. When the yolk-lemon mixture is cool, gently fold in the egg whites and refrigerate until needed.
8. To serve, arrange the filo parcels on top of the courgette ribbons and drizzle over the foaming Hollandaise. Top with lemon wheels, fresh dill and a whole sauteed prawn.
Menashe Kadishman is a famous Israeli artist, sometimes shepherd, and sculptor. His focus on the biblical sheep in ‘Sheep Head’ 1991, and my recipe, effectively marry the simple sheep herder with a simple grain (couscous) and equally simple vegetable (cabbage). The colours (acid pink and green) are a reflection of the rosy dawn and fertile land
Ten spice-rubbed and roasted leg of new lamb witn cranberry couscous
Serves 4 EASY 1 hr 30 mins
Pair with Dalla Cia Pinot Noir 2011 and Teano 2011, both by Giorgio and George Dalla Cia, Stellenbosch
The flavour combinations
Lamb
1 small leg of lamb, bone left in
5ml (1 tsp) of each of the following spices, ground and roasted for 2 minutes in a dry, non-stick pan: cumin, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, all-spice, cinnamon, saffron, coriander, basil seeds, black pepper and fenugreek
5ml (1 tsp) fresh thyme, chopped
5ml (1 tsp) fresh rosemary, chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into slivers
15ml (1 tbsp) olive oil
4 fresh bay leaves, chopped
fleur de sel/sea salt, to taste
Couscous
250ml (1 cup) pan juices, reserved from the roast lamb
30g dried cranberries + extra, to garnish
25g butter
25ml olive oil
150g couscous
4 baby cabbages (red or green or mixed), core removed and kept whole, steamed, cut side down, for 25 minutes
1 large or 2 medium aubergines, sliced into rounds, salted for 1 hour, rinsed and drained cumin and breadcrumbs, to dust olive oil, to shallow-fry
To garnish
8 courgettes, sliced into ribbons on a mandoline, tossed in olive oil and seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper small handful fresh basil leaves zest of 1 orange sprigs of lavender
How to do it
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Rub the lamb with the roasted spices and chopped herbs. Make slits in the lamb and insert the garlic slivers. Drizzle over the olive oil, top with the bay leaves and season. Cover with foil, shiny side down, and roast in the oven, 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 170°C and roast for a further 15 minutes (the lamb should be pink). Allow the lamb to rest to render the juices, then remove the meat and reserve 250ml (1 cup) lamb juice.
2. For the couscous, in a small pot over medium heat, bring the lamb juice, cranberries, butter and olive oil to a simmer. Add the couscous and bring to a boil then cover the pot with a lid and turn off the heat. Allow the couscous to stand, 15 minutes.
3. Roughly pull/shred the lamb and chop. Combine with the couscous. Fill the baby cabbages (or make cabbage parcels) with the lamb and couscous mixture.
4. Dust the aubergine rounds with the cumin and breadcrumb mixture and shallow-fry in the olive oil, 15 minutes, turning at 5-minute intervals. Drain on paper towel.
5. To assemble, place small mounds of the courgettes on the plate and scatter over the extra cranberries. Add the aubergine wheels in a circle and top with the lamb-filled cabbage. Garnish with basil leaves, orange zest and sprigs of lavender.
Banksy, the ultimate Jekyll & Hyde, mystery (no longer) artist whose white or black (never grey) art retells the anti-fairy tale with the famous face in ‘Mona Lisa with a Rocket Launcher’ 2008. It is the archetypal face-off: history versus contemporary, the destruction of the preconceived… a fallen souffle torte (all bets are off!), yet the fairy-tale sprinkling of gold dust makes it just a little (im)plausible. And I live happily ever after, in childlike joy, smearing the canvas with my ultra-chocolate fingers, gleeful, destructive, inventive…
Dark chocolate fallen souffle torte with grappa and raisin cream and gold dust
Serves 4 EASY 2 hrs
Pair with Dalla Cia Limited Edition 5/62 Grappa by George Dalla Cia
The flavour combinations
Souffle Torte
butter, to grease flour, to sprinkle
400g dark chocolate
225g butter
60ml (1/4 cup) grappa
9 eggs, separated
70g Van Houten/good-quality cocoa powder, sifted
220g light brown/demerara sugar
pinch salt
5ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon
Grappa and raison cream
170ml (2/3 cup) grappa
125g raisins 1 cinnamon stick
500ml (2 cups) fresh whipping cream
50g icing sugar
edible gold dust, to sprinkle
How to do it
1. For the souffle torte, preheat the oven to 160°C and line the bottom of a 30cm-diameter cake tin with baking paper. Grease the baking paper with butter and sprinkle with flour.
2. Melt the chocolate, butter and grappa over a double boiler (do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water) and leave to cool.
3. Beat the egg yolks until light and frothy. Add the sifted cocoa powder and two thirds of the sugar and fold into the cooled chocolate mixture.
4. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt and the cinnamon until foamy. Add the remaining sugar and beat until fairly firm, but not dry. Roughly incorporate one third of the egg-white mixture into the chocolate-yolk mixture. Gently fold in the remaining egg-white mixture until the consistency is even yet still light. Pour into the cake tin and bake in the oven, 30 – 40 minutes. The centre should wobble slightly when you remove the cake.
5. For the grappa and raisin cream, gently heat the grappa in a saucepan over medium heat, then add the raisins and cinnamon stick and simmer, 5 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to rest for 20 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and reserve for decoration. Drain then squeeze and chop the raisins and allow the grappa liquid to cool.
6. Beat the cream with the icing sugar until stiff. Fold in the raisins and cooled grappa liquid.
7. Once the torte has cooled (don’t refrigerate), sprinkle with edible gold dust and plop dollops of cream in the centre. Garnish with the cinnamon stick.
Vladimir Tretchikoff “accompanied” by Gregor Rdhrig and ‘Little Miss Tretchikoff’ (in curlers) in a display of Appropriation Art, whereby fine photography meets celebrated fine art (such as this retro pudding) and has been transformed – the green peppercorns carrying the emerald signature colour of the Chinese Lady, the duo of islands mirroring the 21st-century soft-serve ice cream – the echo of a master painter with a new, inspired interpretation
Floating islands: poached vanilla meringues on pools of singer and green peppercorn-infused creme Anglaise
Serves 4 EASY 30 mins
Pair with The emperor of dessert wine, Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2009, marrying the ordinary with the extraordinary
The flavour combinations
3 extra-large eggs, separated pinch salt
seeds of 1 vanilla pod, pod
kept aside
150g castor sugar
750ml (3 cups) full-cream milk
1 knob ginger, scrubbed, unpeeled and cut into slivers
4 fresh green peppercorns, well-rinsed and lightly bruised (not crushed)
110g castor sugar
+ extra, to caramelise the ginger
250ml (1 cup) fresh cream
How to do it
1. Beat the egg whites with the salt until foamy. Add the vanilla seeds and the 150g castor sugar and continue whisking until a meringue texture is achieved.
2. In a wide saucepan, combine the milk, vanilla pod, ginger slivers and peppercorns, and heat until it just simmers. Dip 2 teaspoons into the hot milk and use them to ‘mould’ and gently drop dollops of meringue into the simmering milk to create little islands. Do not overcrowd the ‘milky ocean’, as the meringue will expand while cooking. After 3-4 minutes, flip the island over and poach for a few more minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the islands and lay them in a wide glass container. Once cool, refrigerate until required. Reserve the milk mixture and remove the vanilla pod, ginger and green peppercorns (but do not discard the ginger).
3. Whisk the egg yolks until light and frothy. Add the 110g castor sugar and continue beating until light. Add the remaining infused, warm milk and strain into a clean heavy-bottomed pot. Add the cream and, over a low-medium heat, stir the mixture constantly until thickened, 15 – 20 minutes. Do not allow to boil or overheat as this will curdle the egg yolks. Remove from heat, allow to cool then refrigerate.
4. Toss the ginger slivers in castor sugar and throw into a hot pan until caramelised.
5. When ready, spoon a quarter of the creme Anglaise into 4 wide bowls. Float in two or three islands and add a piece or two of caramelised ginger.
A blow torch can be used (with extreme caution) to slightly bronze the tops of the islands. Garnish with the a vanilla pod.
Related Content
