Everything here is cooked on one fire

Sixteen seats on a werf in Prince Albert, two sittings a day, and a fire that is lit at six in the morning and not fed after nine at night.

How it is cooked

Coals

The fire is lit at six. By eleven there is a bed of rooikrans deep enough to run the midday board, and the back of the hearth is fed all day so a fresh lot is always coming through. Nothing is cooked on flame — only on what the flame leaves behind.

Salt

Salt goes on early and by hand. Lamb is salted the night before and left uncovered in the coldroom. Fish gets twenty minutes and no more. There is no brine, no cure cabinet and no marinade in this kitchen.

Fire

The grill winds up and down on a chain, so the cook moves the food nearer the coals or further off instead of turning a knob. Whoever is on it stands at the fire the whole service, and works off where the heat is that morning.

Pass

Plates leave when the fire says so, not when the table is ready. Sixteen covers means one round goes out together, so a course lands on every table inside a minute. If something needs ten minutes more, we come and say so.

There is no gas in the building

We burn two woods. Rooikrans comes from a clearing crew outside Oudtshoorn and gives a hard coal that holds for hours, which is what the shoulder and the ribs need. Old vine wood comes off a farm on the Prince Albert side of the Swartberg, burns quicker and cleaner, and does the fish and anything else that only wants a few minutes. The grill was made by a welder in Klaarstroom and winds up and down by hand on a chain. There is nothing to set and nothing to read. You learn where the heat is sitting that morning and you cook off that. Which is why the menu changes when the wind does. A south-easter pulls straight through the hearth and burns wood at twice the rate, so on those nights we cook things that want a hot, short fire and we say so when you sit down. On a still evening the whole bed holds and a neck can go in the covered pot at five.

Midday board · 12h00–14h30

Kaiings on hot bread — R95 Pork fat rendered down in the ash pot, coarse salt, and a loaf baked on the coals that morning.

Grilled snoek, apricot — R145 West Coast snoek, dry-salted overnight, basted with apricot jam and brown vinegar.

Lamb rib, one bone — R120 Karoo rib held high over rooikrans until the fat goes glassy and the edge catches.

Coal-baked beetroot — R95 Buried in the ash for an hour, peeled at the pass, sour cream and dill off the werf.

Bone marrow, two halves — R110 Split, salted, blistered bone side down, parsley and the same bread as the kaiings.

Milk tart on coals — R70 Baked in a flat pot with coals on the lid, so the cinnamon top blisters and cracks.

Fire menu · 18h30 until the coals are done

Lamb shoulder — R320 Off a farm at Rietfontein, four hours over coals that are already dying. For two.

Ribeye off the wind-up — R295 Aged five weeks in Oudtshoorn, dropped low for the crust, wound up to rest.

Springbok loin — R285 Hung eleven days, three minutes a side, sent out pink. We do not cook it further.

Whole kabeljou — R260 Driven up from Stilbaai on ice that morning, split, salted, cooked skin down.

Boerbok neck for two — R240 One neck in a covered pot at the back of the hearth until it leaves the bone.

Ash-roast pumpkin — R160 Whole in the coals, cracked open at the table, brown butter and a bread crumb.

When the fire is lit

Wednesday to Sunday. Two sittings a day, sixteen seats at each.
The midday board runs 12h00 to 14h30. The last table is seated at 13h30.
The fire menu starts at 18h30 and runs until the coals are done, usually somewhere near 22h00.
Closed Monday and Tuesday. Monday is when the wood comes in off the bakkie and gets stacked.
On Sunday we light one fire only, so Sunday is the midday board and nothing after it.
When the south-easter comes up we cook a shorter menu, and you get a message the morning of your booking.

Ask for a table

Kweekvallei werf, the Kerkstraat end of Prince Albert. Off the R407, turn at the Swartberg Pass sign and carry on 2.1 km past the last streetlight — the gate is the one with the woodpile. We answer after service, so after 15h00 or 22h30.