L’Amour à La Mouette

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Inside I’m welcomed by chef-patron Henry Vigar, who offers me a welcome morning coffee. “I’ve been wanting to cook ever since I was seven,” he says when I ask him when he received his kitchen calling. “I got my first job at 14, working as a kitchen porter and enrolled for a chef’s diploma in a local college in Nottingham by the time I was 16.”

A solid stint followed abroad, where Henry fine-tuned his skills in France and Australia before returning to London where he worked as Greenhouse’s sous chef for a couple of years and head chef at one of Gordon Ramsay’s famed eateries, La Noisette. It was only after starting at Kensington Place when the universe started tugging Henry in the direction of South Africa.

“When I met Mari, I was the chef who’d work all the time and not let anyone help me,” smiles Henry referring back to the time he first clapped eyes on his wife and La Mouette business partner, Mari Vermaak. “I think she was fascinated by me, which is why she started wooing me with coffee. I wooed her back with sweet things from the kitchen and then the romance blossomed.”

When Mari arrives 15 minutes later, she confirms the story almost verbatim. “I had heard of him before I met him: this young new chef who took over Kensington Place, working seven days a week and double shifts and not allowing anyone to help him. I was completely intrigued.”

“Someone introduced us and he was quite abrupt, as chefs normally are when they’re busy,” she looks over at a chuckling Henry. “And then I won his heart with a cup of coffee, really. And saying good morning. Nothing special.”

It was during a sojourn to Mari’s native South Africa, that the two decided to relocate to Cape Town and start a business together. “It all happened so fast,” recalls Mari. “Last year we literally came over with two suitcases, two CVs and a few boxes on a boat. We moved into Sea Point on Valentine’s Day and signed the lease for the restaurant building by the end of February.”

The structure in question is a grand Tudor-style building, towering out from behind a fringe of palms. Inside, the restaurant is comprised of several rooms cosily fitted with fireplaces and kitted out with wrought-iron chandeliers and pretty damask wallpaper.

When I pulse the couple about the challenges of living and working together, Henry answers, “We spend a lot of time together, which is fine because we love each other. In the restaurant, we keep our departments separate, however. She keeps to the front of house and I keep away from it! Mari’s very good at being a hostess. People can be intimidated by the whole fine-dining vibe, but she’s got that kind of Afrikaans hospitality that puts people at ease.”

Mari continues, “We’re both Leos, so things can get quite explosive, but when we’re here, we’re very professional. Sometimes we’ll have a little waltz through the hall when a nice song is playing, but that’s about the extent of romance in the workplace! I think that’s probably the key: to separate the two parts of our lives as much as possible.”

Asked to encapsulate the restaurant in a three-course meal, Henry thinks a bit before answering, “The starter would have to be calamari with tomato fondue, the main, roasted duck breast with lentils and butternut and confit duck ravioli, sherry vinegar jelly and pickled shitake mushrooms, and the dessert would be my signature gin syrup with tonic jelly and lime ice cream.”

“And since we’re moving into autumn,” Henry continues, “I’m looking forward to working with beloved ingredients like figs, butternut, squash and mushrooms.”

So, do they also pick their own mushrooms in the forest à la the new foraging phenomenon? “The thing with foraging is that nobody knows what the detrimental impact is on the environment,” says Henry. “If there’s a trained forager out there who knows what he’s doing, then fair enough, but I wouldn’t do it myself. Firstly, because they might be poisonous, and secondly, you might take away something that an insect lives on.”

Mari concurs, “The trend is very exciting, and it promotes seasonality and organic produce, which we’re very passionate about. If people know what they’re doing, I’m all for it, but I’m not that convinced by chefs just taking up their knives and heading up into the mountains.”

“Anyway,” she adds, “There’s nothing here for us to forage except the seagulls!”

I wonder what Jonathan would think about that sentiment.

Image: TASTE/Lee Malan