Le Quartier Français

A quail nest at the pass

The quail nest arrives as a worked construction at Le Quartier Français in Franschhoek, where Margot Janse , chef, made that kind of plate the house language. African-inspired cooking, built through texture, grain, game and the discipline of a tasting menu. Born in Naarden, she came to the kitchen by the long way, through waitress work in Harare from 1989, restaurant work in Parktown North, time at the Bay Hotel in Cape Town, then Le Quartier Français as sous chef from 1995. From 1996 to 2017 she held the head chef station here, and the restaurant became one of the addresses through which South African fine dining learned to speak with its own ingredients rather than borrow a French grammar whole. Her recognition includes Eat Out DStv Chef of the Year in 2002. The house itself has carried 8 awards, and the place is 31 in the World's 50 Best.

Native ingredients, tasting-menu pressure

Janse's method at Le Quartier Français sits in the decisions that repeat across the menu: Karoo wildebeest with wild grains, sorghum, rainbow carrots and celeriac purée; Swartland guineafowl with fennel, porcini and liquorice root; cheese turned into Dalewood Huguenot Road custard with vinegar flings and leek shards. The signature dishes named with the house, quail nest and summer walk through Franschhoek, belong to that same register, local material handled as architecture rather than garnish. The earlier Tasting Room offered 4, 6 and 8 course structures, with wine pairings running alongside the pass. Some meals stretched beyond their stated count, moving from small bites such as fynbos rice cracker and butternut steamed bun into game, grains, custards, powders and granitas. The craft note is not abundance for its own sake. It is sequence: the kitchen sets amasi, marula nut, mebos, fynbos, sorghum and local cheeses into a formal dining rhythm, then lets the wine program carry the length of the meal.

The room and the garden hold the pace

The room works quietly, with the restraint of a small hotel rather than the noise of a destination dining room. Le Quartier Français sits at the corner of Berg and Wilhelmina Streets, inside a Franschhoek property of 13 rooms, eight suites and a cottage looking onto landscaped gardens with a natural pool. The setting matters because the food here has never been only plated technique. It moves between the pass and the winelands around it, between a formal tasting menu and the slower tempo of an auberge. Hand-painted fabrics, rich colour, underfloor heating and wood-burning fireplaces give the house its frame, while the restaurant keeps the attention close to the counter and the plate. Quail egg, buffalo yoghurt and dandelion flowers sit inside the quail nest at Le Quartier Français.