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At The Kitchen at Maison, in the beautiful Franschhoek valley, chef Arno Janse van Rensburg has been busy. His goal, for the past five years: to craft a perfectly simple new tasting experience. Like the Scandinavian design that adorns the restaurant’s interior, the new menu is an exercise in minimalism. Each dish has been stripped down to its essence; each flavour matched up, to enhance the dish without upstaging the others.

The kreef tail with oyster mushrooms. Photo supplied.

The new menu also features several pickled and fermented ingredients. Look out for filmjölk, a fermented milk product commonly served in Sweden; black garlic, which is garlic that’s aged in humid conditions until the Maillard reaction takes place and it gets tangy and sticky like a date; and koji, which is rice inoculated with koji mould (that’s the stuff used to make miso and soy sauce. It, too, packs an umami punch).

The vibrant radiccio dish. Photo supplied.

All ingredients are sourced as close to Maison as possible to ensure they’re as fresh as possible. The exact dishes available will vary, depending on what’s most fresh on the day. After all – with fewer ingredients in each dish, they have to be the best.

New dishes include radicchio, red pepper, oyster mushroom and snoek bottarga – a kind of salted, cured fish roe. On the meaty side, there will be suckling pig with kombucha, parsnip, peanut and celeriac. Seafood options include decadent crayfish with oyster mushroom, butter and aioli; and linefish with beetroot and filmjölk. For dessert, tuck into a dark chocolate dish with quinoa, citrus, yoghurt and almond. Or try the koji, with rice, hazelnut, and a sourdough waffle.

Suckling pig is served with kombucha, parsnip, peanut and celeriac. Photo supplied.

The dishes are designed to be shared: chef Arno recommends sampling at least four to five dishes per person.

Under Arno, The Kitchen at Maison has been one of the 20 nominees for the Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards for the past three consecutive years. So what motivated the chef to produce the new menu?

Dark chocolate with quinoa, citrus, yoghurt and almond. Photo supplied.

“It’s about being the best restaurant we can be,” says Arno. “Not about being the best restaurant in the country or chasing awards. We want to empower ourselves and both teach – and learn from – the people who dine with us.”

The new menu is available for lunch at The Kitchen at Maison in Franschhoek, Wednesday to Sunday, 12 noon to 3pm.

Linefish with beetroot and filmjölk. Photo supplied.

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