Multiple wins for Luke Dale Roberts group at Luxe Restaurant Awards

It’s not even two years since fine dining restaurant Salon opened its doors and already the newest of Luke Dale Roberts’ eateries has achieved the title of Restaurant of the Year.

Known for dishes that essentially create a snapshot of his life as a chef, each dish is inspired from different regions he’s been to. The restaurant was awarded the title at the Luxe Restaurant Awards held in Joburg last night, which focuses on the luxury hospitality sector. 

Dale Roberts is already recognised as helping to put SA gastronomy on the global culinary map. Various of his restaurants (especially the highly awarded Test Kitchen) helped redefine the country’s fine dining scene. Salon extends this with a more intimate dining experience but as always, it’s about impeccable dishes with meticulous attention to detail that are beautifully presented and offere  with stellar service. 

Located at The Old Biscuit Mill (just below The Pot Luck Club), the menu is a personal reflection, a culinary journey inspired by Dale Roberts’ career based on travel, international cuisine and the places he’s lived in. As always ingredients and dishes shift as the seasons change. 

Designed to feel like a private chef’s table, it’s about a curated tasting menu, unlike The Pot luck Club, which is all about shared plates and bold flavours. There is a certain dining finesse and a strong sense of story given that all the courses are specifically created through influences. It’s not a buzzy, trendy experience; the décor is elegant and unfussy, it’s all about the dishes themselves, which are small and artfully presented and layered with nuance. 

Initially Salon was about canapés in a bar, but patrons wanted more of what Dale Roberts is known for, which pretty much fits in his mantra: “Taking the places I’ve been and the places that inspire me and putting them on a plate”. 

The names that Dale Roberts is known for are gold standard on the SA culinary scene. There was The Test Kitchen (which closed in 2021 through Covid-19), The Pot Luck Club (Cape Town then in Joburg) and Shortmarket Club Cape Town, and he cofounded Salsify at The Roundhouse. All have pushed boundaries in flavour and technique. At the same time, there is a community upliftment project that has transformed lives with individuals who started in the scullery and are now excelling as head chefs — Ebie du Toit at Pot Luck Club Johannesburg and Nathan Clarke head chef at The Test Kitchen Fledgelings is a sought-after dining destination. 

Last week at lunch we had the padkos (snacks from SA), which includes lamb rotie and slangetjie (with the most incredible house-smoked snoek wrapped in a turmeric-infused apple, finished with a drizzle of curried emulsion and mango atchar). We could have just had that again and again and been happy. 

The laminated bread the course from England (Branston Pickle & Cheese) was a standout, with Parmesan infused butter finished with some nutritional yeast. Then a tuna sandwich inspired by Mexico, Caponata from Sicily, kingklip and tarragon ravioli from Italy, lamb neck tagine from Morocco and duck Suzette from France. A fresh, light dessert from the Philippines has lemongrass jelly, coconut and lime sorbet, pineapple foam and litchi granita with coconut meringue shards. Then there were “Old Biscuit Mill’ biscuits, an ode to the first biscuits they made, which was a take on a Romany Cream. 

The dish Salon is now best known for is the duck crepe suzette a l’orange, which is a fusion of a French classic Duck a l’orange and crepe suzette with a citrus emulsion and has a show-stopping tableside presentation. 

We enjoyed the tea pairing and a standout was the “grand wedding tea”, a breakfast tea with tropical infusions with pineapple and lime. 

UK born, Dale Roberts trained in Switzerland and England in classical French techniques before heading to Asia for five years, and worked at several successful restaurants in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and the Philippines. “My time in Europe taught me to cook; my time in Asia broadened my horizons.”

He moved to Cape Town in 2006 and since then has won a “plethora” of international and local awards. Time magazine pinpointed the date November 24 2010 as the day “Woodstock officially became Cape Town’s hottest district ... when Luke Dale Roberts opened The Test Kitchen there.” 

Executive chef Carla Schulze, who brings the menu to life with care on a daily basis with flair and precision, was also awarded the Culinary Innovation Award last night for her visionary approach to fine dining at the Luxe Awards. 

The two menus include an eight-course tasting menu for lunch, and an extended global tasting menu exclusively for dinner. 

It’s the continual implosion of new ideas that drives the momentum in his restaurants. “This morning I just thought of a new dish where I thought I want to take the inside of figs, heirloom tomatoes and make a little tartare out of them serve that with some king crab or some langoustine; maybe a little seared tuna mayonnaise that will be the momentum that creates the new dish that will create the energy in the space,” Dale Roberts said this week.

And what about the view that fine dining is wilting away or dead? “I don’t think fine dining is dead. I think in every form of art there’s a place for the high end and the people that want to keep pushing barriers and evolving and growing, and I think that whether it’s fashion, artwork or pottery there will always be a desire for excellence, and I think fine dining is a representation of a chef’s excellence.” 

Salon also received a Three Luxe Star rating, while The Pot Luck Club Cape Town and The Pot Luck Club Johannesburg were each awarded two. Salon’s win follows its international accolade as Africa’s Best New Restaurant at the 2024 World Culinary Awards.