Taste in style

WORDS Nadine Botha PHOTOS Jan Ras

Lees in Afrikaans.

Reason to Love the Holiday Season 25: Because you don’t need tablecloths.

With candy foils from Paris used as wallpaper, 2 000 balls suspended from a massive square ceiling light and the silhouette of the Franschhoek mountains recreated using 7km of colourful rope, The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français in Franschhoek has been given a bold new look, sans tablecloths too.

The look is the handiwork of Dutch designer Herbert Janse, executive chef Margot Janse’s brother. Margot said it was fantastic working with her brother: “Herbert has been a mentor since I was young, taking me to museums and theatres, teaching me how to see. Creatively we are similar in our approach.”

We asked Herbert how he realised his sister’s vision.
Herbert: The brief was a contemporary facelift; less stiff table-and-chair experience; sober but exciting.

How much of the original restaurant and its contents remain in one form or another?
The original contents are similar but it is now a restaurant that has the capacity to fulfil Margot’s need for innovation. A huge change is the extra space we added. We also took out the cast-iron fences that once divided The Tasting Room into a large open area and a smaller intimate one. A 3m-long table was made to fill that gap.

How has your background in theatre design come through in your design?
A fresh layer of paint and new wallpaper are not enough to conquer the whole fine dining experience that takes four hours. The name The Tasting Room says it all: it’s about the senses here – taste, smell, sight and hearing, as well as balance, acceleration, temperature and time. I have achieved a somewhat surreal reflection of this.

Le Quartier Français www.lqf.co.za

As Le Quartier Français is completely booked out months in advance, they have given us a lunch voucher for two at their sister restaurant, the Bread & Wine Vineyard Restaurant, to give away.

CONGRATULATIONS! Hildi Coetzee is the winner of the meal voucher… enjoy!

For the full 30 Reasons to Love the Holiday Season, get the Endless Summer edition of VISI or see what other reasons we are giving away.