BLESSED are the cheesemakers, said Monty Python. So too should be the bakers, who rise well before dawn while the rest of us are deep in slumber, to make all the delicious breads and pastries for us. I salute you.
The Artisanal Bakery & Garden Café opened in February this year at La Motte in Franschhoek, where everything is baked in a very fancy wood-fired oven, operated with an enticing array of levers and doors to control the heat throughout the day (and night). I spent an utterly charming hour with head baker Ricardo Slawers last month, which was his first interview. He’s been at La Motte for nearly nine years, a chocolatier and carpenter in previous lives.
Ricardo’s team includes another baker and two assistants, working in shifts around the clock, baking and prepping for the next day. One ends around 1am, the next one begins at 4am. As I tear off a piece of sourdough and slather it with butter and honey, I am deeply grateful.
The concept and choice to use the wood oven goes back to grandma, explains Ricardo, for that old-fashioned feeling and flavour. Fires are stoked, batches of bread are baked, the oven cools, is built up again, more batches of bread go in…you get the idea. Ricardo maintains the end piece, no matter how hot out the oven, with butter, is the best piece of bread, a childhood memory for him when his mother baked. This is what he hopes is evoked when people visit La Motte.
Here, this is no ordinary sourdough; for his favourite bread, Ricardo uses five different kinds of flour. He runs off their names but we’ll not be giving any secrets away here today. Rye bread is lightly spiced. For the seed loaf, seeds that have been used on top of other breads are saved and mixed into the dough along with fresh seeds, which brings a new dimension of taste. Also, waste not, want not.
Breakfast (sadly not all day) options here include granola; cinnamon oats; mieliepap with salted butter and honey; eggs “La Motte” – poached with Hollandaise, streaky bacon, on a brioche; and a “Farm Feast” – the eggs, bacon, boerie etc.
For lunch or brunch, besides salads, soups and more substantial meals like a plankie steak, burger and “wors-on-a-roll”, there is a section on the menu dedicated to “oop broodjies” (open sandwiches). Smashed avo with lemon, pumpkin seeds and fresh coriander comes on toasted sourdough bread (with shaved biltong or streaky bacon as optional add-ons). Lightly smoked trout with herbed crème fraîche, capers and rocket is layered onto Ouma’s seed loaf, while butter roasted chicken with orchard lemons and house-made mayonnaise and garden leaves on fougasse – a French flat bread typically associated with Provence – is dreamy.
However, if you want to be a bread purist (and who wouldn’t want to be?), look no further than the beginning of the menu: a classic croissant 1837, on its own or with preserve or dark chocolate spread; a satisfyingly simple slice of bread with butter and honey, or splurge on a “Cultured Daily Bake for Two”, a selection of wheaten, rye and wholegrain breads with butter and home-made preserve or honey. Because sometimes you just don’t need more than that.
Being with Ricardo, he elevated the experience by having me sample each of the breads first plain, then toasted, which was quite the revelation. Toasting bread is something I do when it’s a couple of days old, past its best freshness, but depending on the bread there’s no need to wait. We had seed loaf, ciabatta, fougasse (it’s terribly tragic when you discover your new favourite bread and it’s 90km from home), and sourdough.
Fun fact: the origin of the croissant is not French, but Austrian. According to the internet, a Viennese bakery in Paris opened in 1837, run by Austrians Ernest Schwartzer and August Zand, was the introduction to France. The French then took the idea and ran with it.
The La Motte bakery is housed in The Jonkershuis, a short walk from the car park along a gravel path (so keep that in mind and rather don’t wear heels). The traditional Cape Dutch architecture has been combined with contemporary glass and steel extensions, which offer a bright and airy indoor/outdoor feel. There is a huge lawn and a playground so children can be despatched to play out there.
Sit and stay for delicious breakfast or lunch, because right now with winter chills, where better to be than a place warmed by a wood oven, filled withe aromas of freshly baked bread? Then fill a box with take-home delights to extend the pleasure. Like a sweet focaccio, which substitutes butter for olive oil, and adds some sugar and cinnamon on top, yum. If you want to nab a loaf while it’s still warm from the fire, you should get there at about 8am, maybe push it to 10am.
Being at La Motte, the opportunity is ripe for a bread and wine tasting, and I’ll be there for that. For more information, click here. My pics are on Instagram.
