Dennis

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

Reviewed by Dennis Molewa

When I hear someone talking about a bakery, I involuntarily think of an old German bakery. A bakery that is located at the town square in a small village behind the seven mountains in the homelands of the seven dwarfs, covered in snow. I don’t imagine a cartoon bakery though, but rather one just as cosy, warm and comforting as a Czech fairy tale movie that they used to shoot in eastern Europe back in the 50s. Those that I used to watch as a child with a hot chocolate on a Sunday afternoon on the couch and it’s snowing outside and where the world is stilling in order. Does any of you know the German fairy tale about the troublemakers “Max and Moritz” that got caught in a bakery and were cooked into bread for their mischief? That’s exactly how I imagine a banking-house.

But I am not in Germany anymore, we are living in rather futuristic circumstances and I don’t live behind the seven mountains. I live just behind between Lions Head and Table Mountain! Although the world has changed, my imagination which restores most of my memories from childhood has not.

Be that as it may. It is about time to introduce you to a new food spot in Cape Town. A food spot that I can’t leave unmentioned when I am talking about “Sharing one Food Philosophy” in Cape Town.

Jason’s Bakery

I have to admit, I was kinda honoured to meet self-taught captain bread, Jason himself, for a chat a couple of weeks ago.

I watched him talking excited about his home-made sour dough and about its carefully selected ingredients. I was smiling by myself, looking at him and was thinking that it is kind of interesting when people live more than 6000 miles apart from each other but have so much in common. I can’t help telling you who Jason reminded me of. As a teenager, I used to work in a tiny sneaker-shop in Frankfurt. He reminded me so much of my Ex-boss “Pomo”, a German Ex-Hooligan, full with tattoos – super tough from the outside but with sparkling eyes when talking about what he loves most. Pomo loves old-school sneakers just as Jason loves baking bread for him and others.

And the funny thing is that they even look a like. But I know you can’t look into my head, so let me rather tell you about the food.
Jason’s Bakery offers quite a wide range of different exclusive food selections. Others might offer a lot but sacrifice on freshness or quality of the ingredients, whereas some go save, offer exclusive high quality food but keep the menu simple and small. Not at Jason’s bakery though. The menu that Jason gave me to take home with is 4 pages long and all what is offered is the real stuff – It’s what I call a decent menu that shows thought and passion and doesn’t hint at any hidden compromise. The wide range includes the local juice box, local beers, Pannier Champagne Brut selection and herbal tea, tempting egg & chorizo tartlets, amazing kick ass pies (named by Jason himself) and the freshest blueberry and apple crumple muffins. The selection of bread is not simple but classic, Brioche loaf, baguette, sourdough rye, focaccia and more. The nice thing is that although the choice of products is big for a bakery, I was not disorientated browsing through the menu. I liked it’s simple structure.

All of the products are free of preservatives. The bread is baked every day fresh, without enzymes. Jason developes the cultures himself and applies his own pre-fermentation to the dough. He uses 100% Jersey cream butter and organic flour from Swellendam.

Jason the baker runs the baking spot in Loop street, Cape Town, together as a team with his sister as the business woman. It’s funny because people often talk about how unwise it is to start a business with a family member. They never really convinced me and Jason’s bakery, Frankie Fenner or Pizza Vesuvio are living proofs that succesful family businesses can work.

I really enjoyed my breakfast at Jason’s bakery – a super nasty deluxe bacon, Emmental cheese, medium poached egg croissant and Shakshouka with fresh coriander. Shakshouka is apparently an oriental dish with eggs poached in tomato sauce and it is believed to have Tunisian origins. It reminded me a lot of a dish called Ejja, which I used to eat a lot with my Tunisian friends in Germany and during my stay in Tunisia. The Shakshouka seemed to be the more sophisticated version of the Ejja, that I used to make out of some tomato puree, harissa, cumin, egg, salt and pepper. I actually think it is the same, but I couldn’t find a proof for that. Anyway, I liked it, especially with some fresh coriander. But to be honest – nothing beats this croissant with a warm and soft poached egg and runny egg yolk!
I liked his story about the pies he is making for “The Meat Merchants”. They would pass by, drop off some good pieses of meat, yet they would never tell him how to make the pies because they have full faith in his baking skills.
Review by Dennis Molewa