A Peek Behind the Curtain at Tambourine

A thick velvet curtain frames the entrance to the Tambourine restaurant on Harrington Street, where we have a dinner reservation. We are early. I reach out, tentatively, and draw back the curtain — the floor is empty but for a waiter bent over a table setting, making adjustments. I let the curtain fall again. “We are too early,” I hiss to my dining partner in a stage whisper. 

Words: Mia McCarthy

Alerted to our premature arrival, the staff falls into a well-choreographed routine. The curtain opens again, this time to a smiling, upright waiter who ushers us to our table. As the first patrons of the evening, we get to see the restaurant floor for what it really is: a stage. 

The scene stealer, predictably, is the food. Tambourine specialises in small plates made for sharing. They’re calling it New Cape Cuisine: think hyper-local ingredients, a focus on open-fire cooking, and classic dishes reimagined with an intercultural twist. Expect pedestrian ingredients rendered exotic by creative technique, or unheard-of ingredients presented in familiar settings. 

Some of our past favourites include the miso-marinated fish collars, the compressed heirloom tomato with rooibos-kombu dashi broth, and the cold, cubed sweetcorn custard garnished with corn silk crisp. Oh, and you simply cannot leave without ordering a plate of madeleines each for dessert. 

Ironically, though, penning an article about the food at Tambourine is a delicious waste of time — tough break for a food writer. This is partially due to the extraordinarily seasonal nature of the menu, which is determined solely on what’s available from their curated shortlist of suppliers. It’s also because, like any good restaurateurs, Executive Head Chef Darren Allsop and Head Chef Keane Munro didn’t get into it just for the food. 

“For me,” says Chef Darren, “it’s all about the connections with other people.” He doesn’t just mean the tight-knit kitchen team, though they are certainly a big part of it. “In my role, I get to deal with such cool people, like the farmers, the foragers, the fishermen, the hunters. Seeing what they do and how it translates onto the plate, being able to tell their story and be a part of what they do — coupled with the hum and buzz of the kitchen — that’s what it’s all about.” 

Almost every part of the restaurant is informed and upheld by the relationships that Tambourine has with its suppliers. “We try and do as little as possible [to the ingredients] to showcase what [our suppliers] do,” says Chef Darren. Tambourine aims for ingredients sourced from carefully vetted vendors that are, as far as possible, family-run suppliers of organic vegetables, pasture-raised livestock, and line-caught fish. “If it’s not traceable, we won’t touch it,” was how Chef Darren put it. Tambourine also inverts the classic demand-supply relationship with its suppliers. “It has to be conversation. They let us know what’s good, and we tell them what we want.” 

Working in this way — that is, treating ingredient sourcing as a conversation in seasonality rather than a commercial transaction — presents its own challenges. “The menu always starts with ingredients — what is sustainable and easy for us to get over the next three months?” Chef Darren explains. Working with small-scale farmers and foragers can introduce an element of operational instability that some might find intolerable, but for the chefs at Tambourine, it keeps things fresh. 

“It’s taught me to have a deeper respect for your ingredients,” says Chef Keane. “You respect your spinach, for example, the same way you respect your sirloin.” Chef Darren agrees. “You know if you’re only getting a limited supply of something, you’re not going to waste it.” 

Navigating seasonal and local restrictions seems to drive rather than dampen the culinary creativity at Tambourine. At the moment, Chefs Darren and Keane are very into fermentation as a culinary technique. “It allows us to steal from other seasons — so, we can take a bit of summer into winter and vice versa without having to import anything. We also love the slowness of it,” he continues. “Everything else in our life is like, ‘I need this now, I need this now!’ When you get a job that takes months and you can just watch it happen, it becomes quite a meditative thing.” 

It’s remarkable, to say the least, that a chef should revere slowness this way. In an industry defined by high-speed velocity, the culinary leaders at Tambourine are calling for reform. When I asked Chef Darren if there was something he thought needed to change in the restaurant industry, I thought he might say something about supply chain transparency. Instead, he said this: “Kitchen culture. We need better work-life balance.” 

He goes on to clarify that discipline will always be a central tenet of the kitchen. However, he is concerned that the grueling hours, unfair pay, and rampant verbal abuse experienced by so many prospective chefs — especially early in their kitchen careers, working as scullers or similar — is deterring inventive creatives from staying in the industry. Fewer, more fairly-paid people in a kitchen with firm work-life boundaries is a good place to start, he proposes. 

“That way, you come here, you do a great job, and then you go home and live your life. Because no great chef has ever become a great chef in the kitchen — you become a great chef by traveling, by eating, by talking to other people.” 

Both chefs have cautioned that burnout is a regular occurrence in the restaurant industry, and lamented that it doesn’t have to be this way. “We put so much false pressure on ourselves in the kitchen, and it can create such a toxic environment,” reflects Chef Darren. “We’re here to nurture and feed people, and that’s the core of it. I think we’ve lost that somewhere, and it’s become about ego.” 

Sitting across from my interview subjects in the broad light of day, I saw the full scope of collaboration required to get something like the humble leek from farm to fork illuminated before me. The restaurant is a theatre. Months of preparation, countless setbacks, rehearsals, failures, and drama incarnate lie unseen by the audience behind nightly performances — all for an hour’s pleasure. But, the chefs insist that this is the magic of the job. 

“We get an instant gratification that isn’t possible in other jobs,” explains Chef Darren. “Come and enjoy it. We’re here to feed.” And we’re here to eat. 

If you’re eager to try seasonal eating at Tambourine, you can find them at 104 Harrington Street, Cape Town. Bookings can be made via Dineplan, or via telephone on 021 612 0528.