With fourteen courses in every colour of the rainbow, served with all manner of powders, dehydrations and foams; it seems there’s a new wave of dining in Joburg, in the shape of Cube. The brainchild of chef Dario D’Angeli, of Yum fame, the restaurant opened four months ago in Parktown North. And while there has been much discussion around Jozi’s supposedly lacklustre dining scene of late, Cube seems to be offering something entirely different.

“Each menu has a different concept,” Dario tells me. “At the moment we’ve accentuated colour, and at the same time, we’re also accentuating temperature.”

“It’s as if we’re taking a prism and refracting white light through it. Each colour is represented.”

“Red is a cold course, but it includes ingredients which generate heat. There is a harissa ice cream. The oranges are curried courses, the yellow moves towards earthy flavours, while the green is cold.”

Do they serve any blue food, I wonder?

“The blue course is actually the meat course – we use dehydrated blueberries, a lavender and blueberry foam, and we serve the meat really nice and red. For violet, we do a beetroot tart.”

These experimental menus change every six to eight weeks. Before Dario and his team were focusing on colour, there was a focus on different culinary techniques.

“We used to dehydrate mushroom and truffle risotto, make a powder out of it like Pronutro, and then you would add the coconut milk at the table and mix it up.”

This is fun dining at its best. “It’s the way I prefer to eat,” Dario tells me, “I prefer to eat lots of smaller meals that are tasty rather than sit down to one exclusive steak or roast lamb.” With fourteen courses to construct, Dario also has plenty of fun in the kitchen, exploring different textures and techniques with different ingredients. And if fourteen sounds like a lot, consider that when they first opened, Dario and his team were serving twenty-three courses.

“I think we were being a little bit ambitious, attention spans are not there for 23 courses. So we’ve brought it down,” Dario tells me. Despite the reduced workload, Dario and his team of three still turn out 700 dishes on any given night.

This is even more impressive when you consider that most of the food is prepared on the day. “I go shopping during the day, find what I’m looking for, and most of the time, we use it that evening. It’s one thing I am extremely happy about; that our product is so fresh.” They’re also working to make the restaurant as local as possible.

“We’re aiming for that ideal of 90% of the ingredients from within 90 km.” Dario buys produce from a supplier in Linden who grows it in their garden. He’s also starting a sustainable, indigenous garden with local school, Parktown Girls, and challenging UJ industrial design students to come up with some iconic Johannesburg crockery.

“Eventually, I want to get to the stage where I have a breeding pair of ducks, and breed my own pork,” he says.

“We want to create truly sustainable, truly Johannesburg-based restaurant,” Dario adds. While Dario’s brand of experimental cuisine has brought about comparisons with molecular gastronomist Heston Blumenthal, Dario insists that molecular gastronomy is not his focus. Having heard his commitment to buying local, I have to believe him. And while the cooking might be all about fun and experimentation, there is, it seems, some genuine heart behind this white Cube.

By Katharine Jacobs

Image: David Ross