Chez Girard

Vince and I won Best Menu for the 2013 Diner en Blanc Johannesburg. We cashed in on our prize - dinner for two at the restaurant Chez Girard - on Saturday night.  We are so happy Diner en Blanc chose to honor our all-white menu and gift us with Chez Girard. Once again, we have driven by the Naturally Yours Centre on the corner of Main and Culross in Bryanston - where Chez Girard is housed - a million times. Unless you drive in behind the large gated walls, you would have no idea that there is this little haven of French cuisine waiting for you.

Chez Girard was originally founded as a catering company in Rivonia and they still offer an entire menu of platters from breakfast all the way through to cocktail hour and dinner. But they are also open for dinner in their dining room on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

It is an intimate space and Chef Girard comes out from the kitchen periodically, goes around to each table throughout the evening to check on the diners and makes it even more so. Chef Christian Girard is from Macon in Burgundy. The son of French restauranteurs, he came to South Africa after his parents sold their restaurant to retire.

1985 Paul Delvaux label

 
We fell in love with the place the second we walked in when we found that the walls were covered in framed Chateau Mouton Rothschild wine label art. We have cases of most the vintages he had on the walls sitting in storage in my sister's wine cellar in Colorado, like the 1985 with its Paul Delvaux label.

1985 case end

1982 John Huston label

Or we have the labels themselves removed from already drunk bottles which we had framed ourselves and had hung on the walls in our own wine cellar in New Jersey, like the 1973 Picasso and the 1982 John Huston labels. Those are now in storage in our friend Ric's new barn which he built especially to store our most prized stuff!

1973 Pablo Picasso label

A little strange that a Burgundian would adorn his walls with Bordeaux labels, but hey, it's French.

Back to the food, Chef Girard serves a prix fixe menu with several choices for the starter, the main and the dessert. Vince had the mussels starter. Seriously, these people have the best mussels. I was never a mussel fan in the US where it is a staple cooked in hot red sauce in Italian restaurants. But like the Belgians and their moules, the mussels here are sweet and tender. Chef Girard prepared them in a delicate herb and cream sauce letting their flavors shine through. 
 

I had the prawns (my favorite starter) and paw paw salad. It was substantial and delicious.











For the main course, Vince had the roasted pork and apple special, which was not on the menu, served with boiled potatoes. Julia Child always maintained that you can tell a good cook by one dish alone, their roast chicken. Vince would add simple boiled potatoes to that test. To get them perfect, especially in a restaurant kitchen, one must be a master. Bravo, Chef Girard!

I had the salmon in dill sauce. So fresh and so very good! Also perfectly cooked with perfectly boiled potatoes.











Dessert was Chez Girard's "infamous" creme brulee pour moi and a cherries flambe for Vince.









Coincidentally I had been looking for a caterer to help me with a party we are planning to host in the New Year after the madness of the holidays are over and once everyone returns from their travels back to Joburg. Voila, I found one!

And Vince is invited back for one of Chef Girard's famous Marc de Bourgogne nights. Zut alors!