Once in a lifetime dining with One Star House Party

2 May 2017

Imagine pumpkin soup served in a gem squash goblet, silky seaweed oil, springbok consommé and biltong like you've never experienced it before, and you can get an inkling of an idea of what's in store if attending one of the Cape Town One Star House Party pop-up restaurant events.

One Star House Party is a two-year long project created by Chef James Sharman, which sees him and his team visit 20 restaurants in 20 countries in 20 months! They have been to Vietnam, the Everest Base Camp in Nepal and most recently on a float in Kenya. Cape Town is city number eight and Team One Star has set up camp in a beautiful loft apartment in Woodstock until Thursday, 11 May. I attended the second Cape Town dinner last week and was firmly blown away.

Local flavour

As much as Cape Town is a global foodie capital, fine dining menus often lean on Western and Eastern style cooking. Not many top class restaurants wholly promote South African cuisine and ingredients. So even though Sharman and his team hail from Scotland, Ireland and Australia it was super refreshing to see traditional South African dishes and ingredients inspiring their seven course tasting menu.

Once in a lifetime dining with One Star House Party

“We apply the techniques we gleaned while working as chefs in some of the world’s best restaurants to the local food of the country we are in and serve this to our guests,” says Sharman.

The chefs stay in each country for a month so they have plenty of time to learn about the city and its own particular food quirks, trends and produce. Cape Town saw the team foraging their own sea weed and drying their own biltong.

Foraging for kelp this morning! Seaweed is one of the most nutritious ingredients in the world, and a key element in our #capetown menu! #onestarhouseparty #southafrica

A post shared by One Star House Party (@onestarhouseparty) on Apr 23, 2017 at 10:16am PDT

Lip smack-gasms

And what of the food? Well it is all unique, delicious and just a little magical. Some of the outstanding courses include, beef fat focaccia, with sliced steak tartare served with biltong spice, a smoked beetroot sauce, hazelnut puree and creamy homemade butter. Assemble all those ingredients in one bite and I swear it will feel as if your mouth is being caressed by a buttery richness, hard to forget.

#InstaEatsFeaturedEvent with @fitnessgirl_za and @mediamandean at @onestarhouseparty ____________________ Cape Town is stop number 8 on the One Star House Party Tour and the team have setup shop in a converted Woodstock Loft and are serving the most remarkably beautiful and delicious food for an extremely limited time. This was one of our favourite dishes of the night, beef fillet aged in a similar style to Biltong and served on a plate complete with smoked Beetroot and the most yummy Hazlenut oil plus some beautiful Beetroot art to complete the presentation. We won't spoil the surprise but there is something amazing in that brown paper bag. Seriously this was possibly our greatest dining highlight since we started InstaEats and we cannot recommend One Star House Party enough. ____________________ ��: @fitnessgirl_za Follow the link in their bio to book your spot at this years coolest popup restaurant and let us know in the comments if you have been and what you thought.

A post shared by InstaEats Cape Town (@instaeatscapetown) on May 1, 2017 at 11:31am PDT

Another stand out dish was the snoek with seaweed oil and barley puree. Lightly cooked with a blow torch and bordering on sashimi level, this bite of snoek was perfectly balanced with the fresh and early flavours of seaweed and barley.

One of my favourite dishes tonight at the #onestarhouseparty pop-up by @jamessharmanchef - snoek, kelp oil, barley & butter sauce . . . . #food #instafood #dining #plating #foodporn #theartofplating #cheflife

A post shared by Justin Williams (@the_mushroom_forager) on Apr 27, 2017 at 2:59pm PDT

Dessert included two courses; a melt-in-your-mouth roasted pineapple with lemongrass oil and homemade ricotta (the best I’ve ever had) as well as creamy French meringue, served with a little bag of homemade granola made out of rusks and a cup of rich, smoked dark chocolate sauce. A heavenly concoction of sweet, creamy, crunchy and smoky.

"Rusk" granola, French meringue, smoked dark chocolate. SO INCREDIBLY delicious! @onestarhouseparty #onestarhouseparty

A post shared by Richard Bosman (@bosmanrichard) on Apr 27, 2017 at 2:44pm PDT

If you’re a foodie make sure you don’t miss out on this one of a kind dining experience!

The pop-up restaurant will be open till the 11 May. Tickets are $85 (about R1,100) each and available online on OneStarHouseParty.com. Guests are asked to BYOB.