He cooks for international rugby teams, World Cup footballers and top international business and entertainment personalities, but Shaun Monro is a thoroughly down-to-earth guy. Erica Platter asked him how it all began.
What are your first food memories? My gran’s food! The family sitting round my grandparents’ dining room table at Oslo Beach near Port Shepstone. We’d go there for weekends and holidays. So everything we ate there seemed exotic to me – it wasn’t my mother’s everyday food. My grandfather was a great fisherman, so there was always fish on the table. My gran’s fish cakes – they were the first “dish” I ever made. I remember her big jars of pickled fish. Her crayfish thermidor. I remember spending ages getting the meat out of those crayfish legs. I was about five when my gran taught me how to make mayonnaise. Becoming a chef was my way of recreating the pleasures my gran’s food gave me, I think.
So you decided to become a chef? Not immediately. I went to the ML Sultan Hotel School (after Pinetown Boys’ High) and did a national diploma in hotel management. Part of that was kitchen practice, which I did under Garth Stroebel at the Mount Nelson – and it was there I knew where in the hotel business I would be happiest. After another six months of practical training on the housekeeping side at The Royal, I went straight back to the kitchen and haven’t left . . .
Is it the cooking you like, or . . .? It’s everything. Creating the whole experience for guests, making sure the glasses and chairs and music and service − the lot − give pleasure. I love to see guests’ eyes light up when they taste something I’ve made or a dish I’ve recommended. I like to spend time on the floor, meeting the guests. Breakfast is my favourite time for going round the tables making sure they’re happy – I’m very proud of our breakfast buffet, I think it has WOW impact. Everything from an SA champion cheese – the Gruyere from Klein Rivier near Hermanus – to beautiful smoked salmon.
Has food become too “cheffy”, is there too much straining for effect? Oh I hate these trendy foams and drizzles and jellies! Look, they have their place, and I admire the science that goes into some of these new things, but they’re not for me. I prefer food to taste as it’s meant to be. I’d prefer my ice-cream to be made like my gran did it, in a bowl with double cream and farm eggs and beaten for ages, rather than like a chemistry experiment with dry ice and so on. Some of the old-fashioned dishes are simply unbeatable. A cold boiled crayfish with homemade mayo and iceberg lettuce couldn’t be simpler, or better. Some of these celebrity chefs think their poo doesn’t stink… I can’t relate to that. I prefer Rick Stein and his cookbooks to some of the others – first of all he cooks fish, which appeals to me. And second, he’s not cheffy. He’s down to earth.
Why the Beverly Hills? It seems a rather smaller job than some of your previous ones, with multiple responsibilities? Just look at that ocean! (I do, it’s blue-blue and inviting). I love being able to see the sea all day. I love the resort environment. Making food for guests in baggies and slops. As well as for those all dressed up for an evening dinner. It’s my sort of 5-star hotel; the best of all worlds. Casual snacking in Elements and fine dining in the Sugar Club. Small enough for me to be able to cook. But big enough to be able to bring into play my management style. And I enjoy the fact that there’s breakfast, lunch and dinner to offer – a whole-day experience. Currently I’m in assessment mode, getting to know the kitchen, the staff, the clientele. There will be new menus, but they’ll evolve gradually, although I’ve already introduced some new dishes.
Like what? Like wonderful, old-fashioned pork terrine with pistachios and port-soaked cherries, made from a loin of pork cooked in duck fat overnight, when the ovens are cooling down. We’re serving fresh oysters as they are, cold, and also warm, lightly crumbed with a fresh parsley and garlic butter. A lovely sole thermidor … What I’m aiming for is equilibrium (again). More traditional dishes with a modern twist upstairs for fine diners; and also fun and funky dishes for more casual eaters − out at the pool.
Your favourite ingredients? I love Karoo lamb, slow roasted. Beans cooked with smoked bacon, and chorizo. Asparagus hot or cold. And mushrooms. I’m very fond of a plate of “little tastes” of lovely fresh seasonal ingredients.
What’s your favourite kitchen appliance or tool? A corkscrew, it used to be, before screw-cap wines arrived on the scene. Now possibly it’s my garlic press.
What do you eat and cook at home or on holiday? If I’m off duty and at home, you’ll find me in the kitchen, with a glass of wine. In winter I’ll be doing something slow-cooked, long-braised in the oven. In summer I might grill some rare steaks, and serve them with hummus and lemon. On holiday – well, I’ve been told I’m the best person to go with! It has to be self-catering – down the coast or at the Berg – because when all the others go off and hike or play golf or whatever, I get into the kitchen! Every man must know how to cook a decent meal, I think. I’ll even come back early from the beach, while the others are still swimming, to cook. I love it!
So what’s a good holiday dish for a crowd? I do a roulade of chicken which is delicious and really stretches your ingredients. I never forget to pack string when we go away since I had to make the roulade once without it. In desperation I pulled the string out of the gathered curtains, and used that . . . you can always improvise!
Your favourite eating-out food? Stuff I don’t prepare myself – Asian, especially Chinese. Barbecued pork, Peking duck, that sort of thing. China Plate in Durban North (Brown’s Drift Road) is one of my best. I’ve eaten out at some of the top places in London – a superb 9-course meal at Petrus, for example, costing 180 pounds! I left happy and content, it was a great meal experience. But you can also leave happy and content from a neighbourhood restaurant like China Plate.
So tell us about meeting the queen. That was when I was at The Royal. I had tea with her. She was lovely. Reminded me of my gran! She came to Durban for the Commonwealth Heads of State conference in 1999, and it was the first time she’d travelled abroad without her personal chef. So we cooked for her. She loved our lamb, and also our local fresh fish. No calamari, garlic or green pepper. She had to have a side salad with a special dressing with every meal. I remember one day we sent the food up to her and suddenly I realised the salad dressing had been left behind. All the lifts were shut down except for the one going up to the royal rooms on the 11th floor, and that was going up with the tray without the dressing. I grabbed it and ran up the 11 flights of stairs in my clogs, apron and chef’s hat… and got there just in time as the doors opened… Whew!
The first dish Shaun ever made, taught by his gran, was fishcakes. A perfect example of his simple, good, no-need-for-unnecessary-frills approach. Here is his basic method
Shaun’s Oslo Beach to Beverly Hills fishcakes
Boil potatoes with their skins on. Cool, mash. Poach fresh fish. Flake with fingers (don’t use a knife), as if you were crumbling a scone mixture. Throw in a handful of chopped parsley, and very finely chopped onion. Grind over black or lemon pepper. Sprinkle with sea salt. Form into loosely-packed cakes (you will lose texture if you pat them down too smoothly). Rest in fridge for the time it takes you to drink a glass of wine (or two). Shallow fry in a pan in a mixture of olive oil and butter.
1 Comment
Shaun’s a real gentleman, and he knows his stuff too.