Andrea Burgener learnt to cook because her school sandwiches were so bad, according to her mother, who eventually stopped making them.
By chance we ended up sitting next to her mother on our first visit to Burgener’s new restaurant, Deluxe. The chef who made Superbonbon such a hit with her eccentric and eclectic cooking style has returned like something of a prodigal daughter to a group of happy followers. Booking for dinner is a must, even months after the opening.
Once again, Deluxe is a celebration of our particularly South African kitsch, and is named for the ‘deluxe” version of devices and products in the Seventies. The chairs are South African Railways, circa 1970, while the walls are hung with an array of mirrors — none of which match. Purposefully.
The diverse decor inspirations are not lost on Burgener, whose culinary tastes range across easily the widest spectrum of any restaurant I’ve ever been to.
After closing that raging success Superbonbon, Burgener is back with another hit of a restaurant that combines her trademark flair with a new, wholesome consciousness. Her food is organic wherever possible and all of her meats are free-range. This hardly equates to a compromise in quality and the food is as flavourful as ever.
I had the seared Springbok carpaccio (R35), dressed with cumin, chilli and sesame, of which I could have eaten a whole rugby player’s worth. My wife had Vietnamese rice paper wrappers (R25), which are filled with a herb salad and dunked in sweet palm sugar sauce.
For mains, I had the crispy duck (R58), but it was the sauce and vegetables that I loved most: the duck was arranged on a pile of mieliepap and vegetables.
Kath’s mussels came in a dreamy chardonnay and saffron cream sauce (R65). Even the cherry tomatoes and grilled sour bread tasted heavenly.
The baked nectarines (R28) with a hot fudge and cinnamon sauce were sublime and my Brie with brandied pears, moskonfyt syrup and black pepper (R35) was a delightful interpretation of cheeses after dinner.
On another visit, for our first wedding anniversary, Burgener was willing to bring back one of the menus we had after celebrating our first year together: the airport special.
The first time we had it at Superbonbon, it was purely by chance — my wife and I met at an airport — so I asked her if she would do it again for our anniversary, and she duly obliged. She served her usual fantastic food on small containers not dissimilar to an airline’s.
It is a novel approach that sums up the humour and fun Burgener takes with her menu — each dish a taste sensation — and her restaurant. The restaurant revels in its decor, mismatched chairs and candelabra, which do as much to create the ambience as the stylish food.
Besides the so-South African decor and the brilliance of her food’s flavour — because Burgener is a self-taught culinary genius, as her mother pointed out — what’s so satisfying about the dining experience are the visual tributes to bygone eras and inventions for her food’s styling.
Where else could those kitsch merry-go-round animals from the parks of our childhood be resurrected as style icons?
Deluxe is located on the corner of Seventh and Third avenues, Parktown, Johannesburg. Tel: (011) 880 8696