PHOTOGRAPHED BY WARREN HEATH WRITTEN BY ROBYN ALEXANDER PRODUCED BY SVEN ALBERDING FOOD BY WOLFGAT, PATERNOSTER
Every dish is meticulously considered and plated, including the first course on the menu, called ‘Strandveld Snacks’, which consists of, amongst other things, white mussels, buttermilk rusk crumbs, and a local green called soutslaai (salty salad). Each ingredient belongs naturally to this area—the same could, of course, be said of Wolfgat.
A Star Is Born It may be a small restaurant with a small staff in a small seaside town on South Africa’s West Coast—but Wolfgat and its celebrated chef, Kobus van der Merwe, are making massive waves on the international dining scene.
E arly one April morning at the small beach town of Paternoster on the West Coast of South Africa, a chef leaves his restaurant to go ingredient hunting. He does not go to the market or the shops—he heads for the Atlantic. There’s a bite in the air and the morning light throws a million sun pennies on the water. It is the most perfect of autumn days. The chef leaves his shoes and socks on the beach, straps a fishing basket on his back, and wades into the rock pools.
Soon, he finds what he’s looking for. He reaches down and plucks his harvest for the day: a big bunch of seaweed, klipkombers in the local Afrikaans tongue, meaning ‘rock blanket.’ Then he’s done. His restaurant is a small one, after all, and this bushel will keep him supplied for up to a week. He subscribes to the forager’s code: He will take no more than he needs.
100
Powered by FlippingBook