The first impression is of the impeccable service. From the welcoming staff at the tasting room to the trainee server who collects your plates, every single person tends to you with amiable, pin-focused precision. Sommelier-restaurant
manager Christo Deyzel is the master conductor, who ensures a dining experience at Camphors is an elevated affair worthy of showcasing the estate’s
internationally renowned wines. The Camphors at Vergelegen orchestra culminates at the kitchen and at the centre an incredibly talented and dedicated executive chef, Michael Cooke.
Cooke is a breath of fresh air, and has a relaxed and engaging demeanour. It’s no surprise his cuisine is ingenious and sublime, as he’s worked at Heston
Blumenthal’s Michelin-starred The Fat Duck, and as head chef at La Colombe and the Greenhouse at Cellars-Hohenort under Peter Tempelhoff.
The seafood potjie, which included mussels, crayfish, and seaweed, served on a deliciously rich and salty sauce was aptly paired with the Vergelegen GVB
Flagship White 2013. The dish is served in a cast-iron pot, which, when opened, lets out a heady profusion of seafood aromas. The artistically plated Karoo Lamb with sweetbreads and harissa is another highlight, and comes paired with a flight of three wines: the Vergelegen DNA 2012, the Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2010, and the GVB Flagship Red 2012.
Cooking of this quality is rare, but is even more remarkable from such a young, passionate chef, who prides himself on learning his environment and then works meticulously at foraging only the best produce the land on the farm offers him to complement the magnificent wines. A favourite detail was how scantily worded the menu was, letting me divorce all expectations — a sure-fire way to rev up the wow factor. It’s safe to say that Camphors at Vergelegen is serving my favourite spring/summer menu.
Executive chef Michael Cooke lives up to his name at Vergelegen’s Camphors restaurant
Camphors Restaurant, at the historic Vergelegen Estate, is touted as a “multisensory journey of site-specific food and wine”, and thus sets itself up for scrutiny of microscopic proportions. But a visit to the 316-year-old estate,
home to SA’s oldest oak tree, will bowl over even the peskiest of critics.
The first impression is of the impeccable service. From the welcoming staff at the tasting room to the trainee server who collects your plates, every single person tends to you with amiable, pin-focused precision. Sommelier-restaurant
manager Christo Deyzel is the master conductor, who ensures a dining experience at Camphors is an elevated affair worthy of showcasing the estate’s
internationally renowned wines. The Camphors at Vergelegen orchestra culminates at the kitchen and at the centre an incredibly talented and dedicated executive chef, Michael Cooke.
Cooke is a breath of fresh air, and has a relaxed and engaging demeanour. It’s no surprise his cuisine is ingenious and sublime, as he’s worked at Heston
Blumenthal’s Michelin-starred The Fat Duck, and as head chef at La Colombe and the Greenhouse at Cellars-Hohenort under Peter Tempelhoff.
The seafood potjie, which included mussels, crayfish, and seaweed, served on a deliciously rich and salty sauce was aptly paired with the Vergelegen GVB
Flagship White 2013. The dish is served in a cast-iron pot, which, when opened, lets out a heady profusion of seafood aromas. The artistically plated Karoo Lamb with sweetbreads and harissa is another highlight, and comes paired with a flight of three wines: the Vergelegen DNA 2012, the Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2010, and the GVB Flagship Red 2012.
Cooking of this quality is rare, but is even more remarkable from such a young, passionate chef, who prides himself on learning his environment and then works meticulously at foraging only the best produce the land on the farm offers him to complement the magnificent wines. A favourite detail was how scantily worded the menu was, letting me divorce all expectations — a sure-fire way to rev up the wow factor. It’s safe to say that Camphors at Vergelegen is serving my favourite spring/summer menu.
vergelegen.co.za