Chasing light and flavour

Chef Mynhardt Joubert channels impressionist artist Monet

Impressionism provides us with the most honest interpretation of time, and its fleeting qualities. It is perhaps the most authentic, fragile and vulnerable offering an artist can give – and what an amazing gift it is.

Inspired by this honest gift of the artist, Chef Mynhardt Joubert has undertaken a sensory exploration of famous impressionists, notably the Parisian artist Oscar Claude Monet. This artist, who lived a poor, starving artist life in the years preceding the beautiful time at Giverny, loved food, and considered it one of the most important components of a full life.

“Monet wasn’t the only artist inspired by food. Art history is filled with artists’ reflections on food, illustrating that a starving life can still host a full soul,” says Mynhardt. This act of living with art, and an art-filled life, in spite of all the daily challenges, inspired Mynhardt to rethink Station Street Kitchen, Paarl, as a sanctuary for those wanting to escape from external realities to a light-drenched aesthetic oasis – filled with beautiful food.

Here, Mynhardt bares his soul with expressive dishes, rich in colour and flavour, in his Station Street Kitchen and home which now also showcases art that he has collected during his travels.

Having a true artist nature himself, Mynhardt is moved by how impressionists ‘chased light’ effectively capturing moments in time, much like a chef captures fleeting seasonal flavours on a plate.

Giving form to this inspiration, Mynhardt recently entertained writers and other creatives at a ‘Monet Table’ at Station Street Kitchen. Re-imagining the sumptuous lunches and dinners held at the colour-rich Giverny home of Monet, where he too hosted many visitors.

Mynhardt treated his guests to his interpretations of, among others, pork cheek bourguignon, trout and prawn bouillabaisse and white chocolate and rose cheesecake.

“Like art, a good meal can trigger many emotions. A plate of food only lasts for a short time, but the feeling associated with that plate of food lasts. At Station Street Kitchen, I only create meals that lasts a very long time, hopefully forever,” says Mynhardt.

Station Street Kitchen, this sanctuary, and impressionist experience, can be booked for private groups of ten or more, or for events, launches, dinner parties, product shoots and business networking events.