With its focus on advancing skills while preparing tasty food, The Test Kitchen Fledgelings is a very welcome addition to the Cape Town Central City food scene.
It’s about teaching first, say the impressive team behind The Test Kitchen Fledgelings. “Making money will be a bonus … if we break even, we’re happy.”
It’s an interesting business philosophy from mentor chef Tarryn Smith, who heads the kitchen crew at the restaurant that took over the city space formerly occupied by The Shortmarket Grill in the Cape Town CBD. Here the focus is on skills advancement while serving tasty, accessible food.
“We’re not expecting to make anything after our first couple of months of trading, with staff uniforms, equipment and food costings to factor in,” confirms Steven Hackner, GM of The Test Kitchen and The Pot Luck Club, and another mentor at TKKF.
Sandalene Dale Roberts, wife of well-known chef Luke Dale Roberts, launched the project with Hackner and his life partner Melody van Gesselleen. “We just jumped in and started it. It needs to unfold organically,” Dale Roberts explains. The restaurant started trading on 8 April.
“It’s a long story but my dream was to have a skills school. At TKKF, people who can’t afford to go to a culinary school can come to me when we have an opening and get a full salary as a sculler. Or as a sculler, they can move to the kitchen as a chef (those roles include sushi, grill, hot kitchen and cold kitchen). Or as a runner, waiter, as bar staff or in management. For every role, there is a mentor.”
In each section, staff from the group oversee their trainees as they learn the ropes. Fledgeling trainees are invited to bring in candidates of their own, too. Dale Roberts says the one requirement for fledgelings – besides a strong work ethic – is a Matric certificate.
Fledgelings chef Bibo Magidiwana and sushi chef Lihle Tshawuza
MEET THE TEAM
The fledgelings are a motley crew. One of them is Bonke Gumata. We chat while he prepares burger buns for the oven, with mentor chef Khanyile Mfeketo nearby. “I’m a fledgeling learning to do chicken, burgers, sometimes sushi, and salad,” says Gumata cheerfully. He worked previously as a dancer and also at a food market and says he’s now “building a love of cooking that’s growing every day”.
Bibo Magidiwana was one of the early recruits. She in turn, recruited more fledgelings. “I was working as a nanny for Sandalene.” Magidiwana later worked in the restaurant laundry, and three years ago she joined The Pot Luck Club kitchen team.
But her kitchen role has expanded substantially since joining the fledgeling crew. “I like it because I learn a lot. At Pot Luck, I was prepping for orders. Here, I’m not prepping. I’m doing everything: making sauces, making burger roll dough, in the cold kitchen making sauces ... It’s an opportunity for me, a big one.”
Bibo’s daughter Mahle works as a TKKF hostess and seats guests. Personable Aviwe Snyman says he’s learning to handle customer reservations and queries, and the admin and management side, from placing bar orders to maintenance issues. “I used to work in a call centre, but this is my first job in hospitality,” he adds.
For softspoken Lihle Tshawuza, training as a sushi chef provides a way to subsidise the studies he was struggling to afford. It’s his first time working in a restaurant. He was studying photography at Cape Peninsula University of Technology in 2020, and now studies part-time online. “Working here is an opportunity. I can’t afford to buy my cameras, textbooks and laptop for school otherwise. And I love making sushi,” he grins, recommending either the salmon “crunchies” or California Roll from the menu. He hopes to use skills learnt to have a stab at food or fashion photography.
“They make it easy to teach them because they’re so willing to learn,” says Chef Smith of her kitchen fledgelings. “The pace is slower but not that much slower.”
FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD
That was my experience too, when a few of us dined on a recent Friday. Experienced mentors from other restaurants in the group were plentiful on the floor. We ordered the grass-fed beef burger on its homemade bun, oozing with pickles, truffle mayo and cheddar, and arriving with chips alongside. A panko-fried chicken burger alternative had spicy kimchi cabbage instead.
Many starters work well to share. Aside from classic and deep-fried sushi “crunchies”, starters include crispy fried calamari rings in togorashi spice, or beef tartare. Don’t miss the unusual, delicious open Japanese-style pancake filled with a medley of umami tastes: calamari rings, yuzu dressing, dehydrated spring onion and honey soy glaze.
The pricing is similar to that of an upmarket family restaurant, yet the food skill pitches a bit above that.
As Dale Roberts puts it, the old Shortmarket Club was closed and they were paying rent, so it was about contributing to the economy and providing jobs: via diners’ bills and from the managing team behind the project. “You’re sitting in a beautiful restaurant, getting amazing service and wonderful food, and contributing to a good cause.”
Adds Hackner: “It’s been great. The fledgelings have brought this fresh energy, to put into perspective what is important in a restaurant. It's not only about whether the cutlery is exactly right."
* The Test Kitchen Fledgelings, 88 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town. Contact 078 339 2672, www.ttkfledgelings.co.za