Chef Luke Dale Roberts – The Gifted Chef Behind La Colombe

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The gifted chef behind the kitchen of La Colombe Cape Town, Africa is responsible for this restaurant’s achievement in being named as one of the top 50 World’s Best Restaurant this year. Head Chef Luke Dale-Roberts’ cuisine pushed La Colombe to the top, and from the 38th position, they have moved up 26 spots to the 12th position.

Chef Dale-Roberts was born in Britain, but he received his culinary training in Switzerland at the Baur Au Lac Hotel, which is considered as one of the finest hotels in the globe. With his training and culinary skill, he traveled from Switzerland to work in London as well as in Sydney. Seeking to improve his techniques and skills, he then went on to the Far East where he worked in some of the best restaurants in counties such as Malaysia and the Philippines. He has also worked as a chef in Singapore, Korea where launched Shune in Seoul, and Japan where he worked closely with Shunju in Tokyo. He took the Asian culinary world by storm and earned the praises and accolades of critics and food diners alike.

In 2006, he was invited to join La Colombe in South Africa where he became its head chef. La Colombe is already popular in the country and is considered a high-end dining hotspot, but it was only when Chef Dale-Roberts joined them that the restaurant went through major changes in terms of popularity and accomplishments.

He infused his own skill and techniques into the otherwise traditional yet modern French cuisine and gave La Colombe’s cuisine his own version of Asian influence, a style he learned and mastered during his stay in Asia. His perfect rendition of French and Asian blending gave the cuisine a whole new look, one that excites all the senses.

Chef Dale-Roberts admits that he has had a lot to live up to when the former head chef of La Colombe left, but with his culinary skill, Chef Dale-Roberts more than showed the culinary world that he could fill those big shoes left by the former head chef. Little by little, he began reinventing the dishes, tweaking and refining the traditional cuisine, and giving them his own brand of cooking style and technique. Aside from this, Chef Dale-Roberts began adding more interesting textures to the dishes. He explored and studied different ingredients and created dishes known for their bold flavors. His skill in cooking and the way he creatively plates the dishes earned the respect of La Colombe’s diners.

Two years after he took control of La Colombe’s kitchen, he was named as the Chef of the Year at the Prudential Eat Out Awards, and the next year, La Colombe got into the top 50 restaurants.

Chef Dale-Roberts has truly made his mark not only in La Colombe but in the culinary world with his inspiring dishes and mouth-watering presentations.

Chef Luke Dale Roberts’ Rösti with Hollandaise and Poached Eggs

Rösti

Ingredients:

1600 g Mediterranean or waxy potatoes
2 white onions small quantity of butter
20 g fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
salt & pepper grated nutmeg
a few extra knobs of butter

Directions: Wash potatoes under running water. Put them in a pot and cover with water. Boil gently for 15 min or until a little soft. Drain and cool. Chop onions roughly and put them in a sauté pan with a little butter add seasoning and sauté until soft. Remove from pan and cool. When potatoes are cool, peel away the skin and grate them coarsely into a bowl. Add parsley and sautéed onion and season well with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Take a good handful of rosti mix and put it in the pan, pressing around the edges. Cook the potato for 3–4 min on gentle heat until it begins to colour. Take a few knobs of butter and put them round the edges so that they melt down, and continue cooking until golden. When rosti starts turning brown under the edges it is ready to be flipped (take a look by gently lifting the edges with a spatula). Flip the rosti and repeat the process for other side.

How to Flip a Rösti: To flip the rösti hold the pan in both hands at about waist height. Make sure the rösti is nice and loose and has not stuck to any part of the pan. The movement should be quite slow and there should be a little flick of the wrist as the rösti starts to leave the pan to get it spinning towards you. Drop the pan and let the rösti glide round 180 degrees catching it perfectly on the flip side. To watch a video of the flip, go to www.goodtaste.co.za.

Hollandaise

Ingredients:

250 g butter (clarified)
100 ml vinegar
½ onion, sliced
cracked pepper
4 egg yolks small quantity of water

Directions: Heat butter until completely melted. Leave to cool, and separate by spooning off the white milk solids that have risen to the surface. Reserve the milk solids. Put vinegar in pan with sliced onion and cracked pepper. Boil to reduce by two thirds. Strain and cool. Place the egg yolks in a bowl with vinegar reduction and 4-5 tbsp water. Place bowl over double boiler and bring to just below boil, whisking all the time. The mixture should be light and fluffy, and slightly hot. (If the water is boiling or the egg is ‘catching’ take off the heat and continue whisking.) Remove bowl from heat. Slowly drizzle the butter into the bowl of egg yolks, whisking all the time to emulsify. If the mixture becomes too thick, add a little water to loosen. When all the clarified butter is whisked into egg mix the mix maybe a little thick. If so add the milky residue in the bottom of the butter container until a consistency is achieved that can coat the back of a spoon and flow off very slowly.

Poached Eggs

Ingredients:

6 litres water
300 ml white wine vinegar
6 fresh free-range eggs

Directions: Find the tallest pot you can and fill it almost to the brim with water. Bring to boil and add vinegar. Break the eggs into 6 small cups or similar containers. The water should be just below a bubbling boil. Drop the eggs in and let them fall to the bottom. Poach for approx 3–4 min. Remove with slotted spoon and plunge into iced water. Leave for a few moments until cool, then drain onto kitchen towel. To reheat, place poached eggs in a saucepan with almost boiling water.

Image Credit: chefswarehouse.co.za

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