Six decades of culinary success at La Fontaine Restaurant, Meikles Hotel.

Wondrous dessert table at La Fontaine Restaurant

‘WE opened with a bang, and never looked back’, said the manager of Meikles Hotel, Mr F E D Cadell, when La Fontaine Restaurant opened on December 09, 1958. The decor of this chic new restaurant, named after the fountains in Cecil Square, now Africa Unity Square, combined blue velvet curtains, red and black carpeting and yellow velvet seat covers. Styles evolve, and now resplendent in warm, earthy colours after Meikles’ latest multi-million dollar refurbishment, La Fontaine continues to be one of Harare’s most popular top-end restaurants.

Almost sixty years to the day, La Fontaine, now officially the grande dame of Harare’s restaurants, celebrated her ‘six decades of culinary success’ with a diamond anniversary smorgasbord. Champagne and wine were flowing when managing director Carol White welcomed guests and expressed her excitement at the upturn in business and an ‘influx of clients since the new government’. Before the phoney coup last November, when
business was depressed and customers few and far between, White contemplated temporarily closing La Fontaine. The idea was abandoned when John Moxon, executive chairman at Meikles Ltd posed the question ‘What happens if a customer wants to come?’

Carol White has a strong background in tourism and hospitality, and after a long stint as managing director of DHL in Zambia, there’s little you can tell her about freight and delivery. She understands the importance of customer service and attention to detail, resulting in an increase in business clients representing banks and airlines, to Meikles Hotel. After raising a toast to the past, present and future La Fontaine, we were invited, table by table, to sample Executive Chef Bosco de Govera’s smorgasbord dinner.

From a vast selection of beautifully-presented starters, I chose a classic flavour combination of rich, syrupy figs with sharp and salty blue cheese. Plain, steamed prawns on cucumber slices looked handsome, but tasted bland, while perfectly seasoned beef carpaccio with duchess potatoes was delicious. After a spoonful of flavoursome Zimbabwe cob salad, it was time to pay attention to Chef Bosco’s international main course selection.

From an array of Mexican, Asian, European, and Zimbabwean foods, not forgetting seafood, I zoomed in on the Nigerian section.
After six years as executive chef at the Moorhouse Hotel in Lagos, Chef Bosco has learned a thing or two about Nigerian cuisine. ‘Mixed meat’ turned out to be a rich and flavoursome stew of beef, shaki (tripe) and brokoto, also known as cow’s leg. Accompanied by jollof rice (spicy, braised rice) this was a great dish. For those yearning for European classic dishes popular in the 1950s, there was steak and mushroom stew, beef Wellington and butter-roasted turkey, not to mention numerous ‘ocean and river delights’, including beer-batter tilapia and grilled octopus with smoked paprika.

There were two wondrous dessert tables, featuring chocolate bread and butter pudding, meringues, fruit crumbles, chocolate mousse, fruit salad, cheesecake and sherry trifle, to mention only a few of the choices. After searching in vain for chef’s special lemon tart, I settled for a creamy white chocolate panacotta and a fruity mince pie.

Although the cheeseboard resembled an enticing display in Harrod’s Food Hall I could eat no more, and sipped a cup of coffee before heading to the dance floor, where Summer Breeze Band were belting out songs from six decades, starting with the 50s. It was a rare sight to see members of Meikles Board of Directors, and past and present hotel managers getting down and showing off their dance moves to Tina Turner’s Simply the Best and Andy Brown’s Mapurisa.

We were among the last to leave the party, and apart from a few night owls in the Tanganda Lounge, Meikles Hotel was settling down for the night. As we drove home through the eerily quiet CBD, I pictured La Fontaine in 2078. The decor and the menu would have changed, but Carol White’s optimism wouldn’t be misplaced. La Fontaine would continue through the years to be ‘the place to come’.   – A Matter of Taste with Charlotte Malakoff

La Fontaine
Cnr 3rd Street/Jason Moyo Avenue
Harare.
Tel: 04 707721
Comments to: cmalakoff@gmail.com