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Voucher Partner Dusk is a restaurant concept conceived by award winning chef duo, Darren Badenhorst and Callan Austin. The pair first met over a decade ago, when Callan walked through the doors as an intern at one of Darren's kitchens in the Cape Winelands.
Over the years, the two chefs established a strong mentor/mentee relationship and in 2017 Darren extended the offer to Callan to join his team when he opened Le coin Français in Franschhoek. As the restaurant would go on to win multiple awards, Darren's mentorship became increasingly prevalent in Callan’s career - seeing him through to the finale of the San Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition 2021 in Milan where Callan became the winner of the Social Responsibility Award.
Fate, it seems, would have it that they have come full circle, since Callan is now assuming his first head chef role at Dusk restaurant. Stay tuned as we unveil more about the story behind the restaurant and what guests can expect when dining at Dusk.
Gourmet Guide Description
The discreet door on Plein Street, opposite Stellenbosch Town Hall, belies a multi-faceted dining enclave. It offers an elevated, sophisticated dining adventure that illustrates alchemy. Shafts of light illuminate each linen-covered table in the dark and intimate space. Here fine dining boundaries are pushed to the limit with the marriage of taste and technique.
There’re two wine pairings with the tasting menu, one a surprise package dubbed Pandora’s box. Choose a number, get a box and then a sommelier adds a little magic, plus water pairings. After some delectable amuse bouche expect to be wowed by seasonal, locally sourced dishes that focus on the ingredient, perhaps braised and coal-fired abalone with citrus sabayon, pickled kohlrabi and a wild rice puff. Beautiful plates represent their ethos of responsible sourcing and in-house crafting, like the smoked and dry-aged duck breast with celeriac, duck gizzard sausage, black garlic and balsamic with wild allium and truffle.
Staff are unobtrusive yet present, and one of them will invite you to view their fermentation playground. Whole-process cooking is part of their vision of zero wastage. Constant experimentation is seen in the handcrafting of miso, shoyu, garum, lacto-ferments, cured meat and cheese.
Chef Callan Austin met co-owner Darren Badenhorst a decade ago when he was an intern. He joined Darren when he opened Le Coin Français restaurant. Callan is never off duty, he lives on a farm and when he sees that the pine ring mushrooms are begging to be picked, he is known to message his equally passionate team members to join him for forest therapy.
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