It’s not just a meal – eating at La Colombe is an experience, says Scot Kirton, who turned the restaurant into an empire.
It’s not just a meal – eating at La Colombe is an experience, says Scot Kirton, who turned the single restaurant he inherited from Franck Dangereux into an empire that now dominates the SA awards scene and even, in some cases, beats the world. And that was the intention all along.
“I had always enjoyed cooking at home and my dad said ‘why not try cooking in a restaurant?’,” Kirton says. “At the time, I was delivering produce from our farm to the restaurants and my dad managed to get me a trial at Haute CabriKirton was just 19. Meanwhile, in Constantia, Franck Dangereux was the chef to beat.
“I was originally worried about applying for a job there, as often when chefs leave, things fall apart quite a bit,” Kirton says, looking back. “But Luke convinced me this was the right place to be and La Colombe would once again be the best restaurant in the country.”“Most of the staff working there were still from Franck’s days and all shared this incredible passion to be the best in the country.
“A few chefs followed Luke to open his new restaurant and I was left with a young, inexperienced team,” Kirton recalls. “One thing I knew for sure was that if I was going to succeed at La Colombe, I needed to build a team that was second to none. I needed to create a great environment where people wanted to work. Staff needed to share the same mindset that we would do whatever it took to keep the La Colombe name on the awards sheet.
This was the point where the Franck Dangereux story and the Scot Kirton story intersected again. During this scary period of hoping for a new life for La Colombe, he called Franck, who gave his approval for the continued use of the name he had invented. “We moved all the equipment and tables and chairs on the back of one of the staff’s parents’ delivery vans and spent six months painting and designing menus for what was to be the future of La Colombe at Silvermist Wine Estate.”
“Having her on board was key, as she was the face of the front-of-house at the time and had such good relationships with all the guests. We were almost forced to open before the building was fully ready.”“For our first service, our bar was a trestle table covered with tablecloths. There were terrible draughts gusting through the restaurant from unsealed gaps in walls. I couldn’t help thinking this was a mistake.
“Foxcroft was an immediate hit with the locals and started winning awards of its own, winning best new restaurant in that year’s Eat Out awards. Currently, Foxcroft holds two Eat Out stars.” The building of an empire had taken firm root. But Kirton felt it was time to take a step back and let the chefs move forward.
Kirton may not know this, but Sampson is one of my favourite chefs at the Cape. She has an astonishing way with Cape spices. She is underrated in this milieu. These were heights first climbed by the likes of Luke Dale Roberts, who must be given credit for opening the door wider to this approach to ‘fine dining’, a moniker I dislike. But it was on its way before he came on the scene, and Dangereux was the pivot on which this change in the Mother City’s high-end culinary status turned.
“We also have production kitchens at La Colombe and the Waterfront, where all the basics are done, from prepping meat, to stocks, petit fours and breads etc. It was needed to help relieve some of the pressure in the kitchen so we could continue to move forward.”
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