The White Room at Dear Me

Chef Vanessa spoils Cape Town with her brilliant and innovative culinary skills, every Thursday night, at The White Room located in Dear Me.

The whole space is decorated in white and my favourite ghost chairs makes an appearance. I think the space is decorated like this so that all your attention is on the food only and that you focus all your senses on it.

My mother and I were joined by a friend of my mother, Celia, and her daughter, Ina-mari, so we made a great girls night out of it. These two are part of the culinary industry. Not only did they contribute to a great discussion about the food but also picked excellent wine which included Warwick's  First Lady.

 

 Here are the "9 episodes" we were spoiled with...

 

 

We started with...



 An olive sphere and freshly baked focaccia bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar served in pipettes. Ina-mari is a food-stylist and trained chef so she was such an awesome dinner date as she could explain to us all the different techniques Vanessa used such as the olive sphere which literally melted in your mouth.

Episode 1:Oyster topped with red wine vinegar  onion dressing  and trout roe. There were some crunchy vegetables underneath the oyster. This was great as I sometimes am not a fan of the consistency of an oyster but do enjoy the taste so the crunch added to the oyster was appreciated.

Episode 2: The Greenhouse Salad. You were instructed to lift the cloche and experience the aroma which I identified as toasted almonds.

Episode 3: The marron. Here you first had to lick the marron shell, then eat the marron and enjoy the seafood bisque. The bisque was one of the winners of the night.

Episode 4: The quail. Now I have mentioned this before but I have a big fear of birds and poultry that's still attached to bone. So when this little fellow arrived I had to keep my pose. Luckily enough it was a very tiny bone present. The quail was pared with a cucumber salad and seared vanilla pod. This was one dish I was not fond off as it did not bring anything special to the table.

Episode 5: Three tomatoes were infused with different herbs and you had to guess what you think they were...

Episode 6: Pork tail terrine. This was my mothers' favourite dish. The pork tail terrine is paired with pickled onion, mustard and artichokes. The mustard was too strong for me but I enjoyed and the pork terrine and artichokes.

 

Episode 7: Here you had to use some of our own man power. You had to use your pestle and mortar to grind the sesame seeds. A soy broth was then added to your seeds by a waiter. You then use the utensils to drop the raw kob and microherbs into the broth. This was a dish I enjoyed as I love Asian food.

Episode 8 : Good old fashioned egg, steak and chips. The twist was that the hollandaise sauce was enriched with truffles . Everyone cleared their plates and Ina-mari thoroughly enjoyed the special treat of the truffle hollandaise sauce.

Pallet cleanser: This tonic water and grapefruit sorbet was perfect after the rich episode 8.

Episode 9: Strawberry jelly, beetroot and basil granite served with vanilla yogurt cream was a refreshing dessert. I always order something chocolaty and usually shy away from anything jelly related ,as I overdosed on jelly as a child. This dish now broadened my future dessert choices except if a chocolate fondant is on the menu :)

The end: A chocolate truffle

This 9 course menu is an educative and innovative experience. This is not something I will do again as I was not in love with everything but it did broaden my horizon and I discovered a new appreciation for the effort and time chefs put into all their dishes. It was also refreshing to try dishes that are fresh and where carbohydrates were not the main food-group.

With this tasting menu the focus was less on substance and more on innovative techniques and therefore it will not fully be appreciated by everyone.

 The white room only accommodates 20 diners at a time as you could think how much preparation it takes to pull all 9 courses together. The atmosphere of the night was very rowdy due to fellow diners as well as one table that had child with them. We as table discussed that we would have preferred a more tranquil atmosphere that would have attributed to the "drama" of the 9 course experience.

This experience does not come cheap at R380 per person and R610 if you want the wine-pairing with it.  Unfortunately the  9 course tasting menu is ending soon but Graham, the awesome host of the night, said that Vanessa is already prepping for something great to follow.

If you can't reach so deep in your pockets ( thank you mom for my experience) then visit the  brasserie and pantry.  I have had the best eggs benedict there and they cater especially for vegans and people with dietary intolerants. Just let them know :)


Located at 165 Longmarket street, Cape Town
Visit them for breakfast 07:00-11:00 or lunch 12:00 -15:00 on Mondays to Thursdays & for the white room experience or alacarte dinner  on Thursday evenings. Bookings recommended.
Contact them at 021 422 4920 or info@dearme.co.za
Visit their website or follow them on twitter @DearMeFoodWorld