This summer, South African culinary connoisseurs and epicureans are in for a treat with the Pot Luck Club’s bold new offerings. With the addition of new dishes like mussels and braised beef tongue plus exciting vegetarian options, there is something for everyone.
While the change of seasons brings a shift in ingredients, there are also shifts within the the Pot Luck Club’s kitchen. Award-winning chef and restaurateur Luke Dale Roberts says he has loosened the reigns at his world-famous restaurant, for Executive Chef Jason Kosmas to bring his own unique approach to the restaurant’s menu.
“I get bored quite quickly, so I like to constantly develop new dishes. It’s about playing with flavours and exploring new angles,” says Kosmas. “Although Pot Luck Club is all about bold flavours, I definitely think I have a light touch in the kitchen.”
Compliments to the chef
The mixture of the Pot Luck Club’s “family favourites” and fresh additions is sure to mix up the crowd with frequent faces coming back for their favourites — like the peanut butter bomb with banana mousse — and first-timers visiting with an appetite for something new and unexplored. While some might think the restaurant’s take on the surf ‘n turf quite daunting, it is flavourful, vibrant, and excites the palette. The dish pairs the familiar surf through mussels, but braised beef tongue owns the turf. They mingle together on black rice, kale with fennel flowers and parsley.
“Our sauce game is particularly strong,” says Kosmas. “The sauces have a very special way of bringing the dish together. It’s about bringing together layers of flavours that really highlight the complexity in each plate.
Lest we forget, serving delicious meat cooked to perfection and topping it off with a luscious sauce is one thing, but having a solid plant-based offering in your repertoire is just as telling. Within Kosmas’s push for more exciting vegetarian dishes, the Broccoli Penang, with coconut and peanut curry with lime pickled onion is juicy and flavourful. It’s fair to say the Pot Luck Club’s vegetarian options are refreshingly extensive with seven options on the menu to choose from.
With that being said, the meat dishes may be small plates, but they are the perfect serving size to not weigh you down when you stand up from your seat. The Lamb Shank Pot “Pie” with polenta petit pois à la Française, pea & olive purée, and chestnut lamb jus somehow strikes a balance of being both hearty and refreshing. It is like magic.
Now for dessert. The Pot Luck Club’s favourite dessert is their Peanut Butter Bomb, served with banana mousse, honeycomb crunch, banana tuille and frangelico sabayon. But we’re here to tell you that the Jerusalem Artichoke Tart with crème diplomat, apple bourbon and vanilla cream, oat crumble, and coffee syrup is a front runner for unique dessert. It’s not ground breaking to introduce typically savoury ingredients into a dessert environment — and vice versa — but the team at Pot Luck Club have taken the idea of an apple crumble and elevated it to the next level by virtue of artichokes.
