Pete Goffe Wood

I first met Pete 15 years ago. We were both working for the same woman in London – he as her head chef at one of the swanky restaurants she owned, me as a nanny for her two children and in the little food shop adjoining one of her eateries. Pete used to make mouthwatering, homemade deli food for me to sell – at a time when hummus and ciabatta were the foodie terms du jour. It was my job to fetch whatever offerings Pete had made for the food shop on my way back from dropping the children off at school in the morning. Having a fellow South African to shoot the breeze with was something I looked forward to every day and I never failed to be excited by Pete’s offerings for the deli (his modern British food in the restaurant really got the critics going too) but it was his home cooking that was such a treat — good, ribsticking fare, simple and lovely. I hold a particular Christmas dear, when Pete and his wife Elize made this homesick gal some pork stuffing because she couldn’t be at home to eat her mom’s.I ate it all.

Despite his laidback and absolutely down-to-earth air Pete is a serious name to know. He is the Kitchen Cowboy and holds sellout cooking classes for gourmet guys. He’s been a judge on the biggest dining guide Eat Out for the past few years and he is a champion for local produce par excellence.

So when a tweet came through that Mr GW had opened up shop…I knew this was an opportunity definitely not to be missed and so Loverboy and I moseyed down to Hout Bay this past Sunday afternoon. Despite the fact that it’s February, it was one of those chilly days with delicious winter sun – you know, the school-break-time-on-a lovely-winters-day sun – the perfect day for some hearty plates of food.  Anyhoo…I knew to expect Pete’s robust, comfort food style but nothing could have prepared me for the altogether lovely experience.

The restaurant is unassuming. There’s a deck outside if you want a view of the sea (Hout Bay beach is to the left and across the road), the inside tables are a darkish grained wood, the daily menu printed on plain white paper. Behind the bar, a teal blue mosaic’d wall. A lovely, simple, clean interior canvas – and the ideal foil for some gorgeous, robust food.

Wild Woods Bistro and Bar, Hout Bay

To start, Loverboy had the moules and I had the chicken liver parfait. Oh boy. The moules consisted of three large handfuls of plump molluscs, sitting in a  silky, onion scented creamy sauce, begging to be devoured…Loverboy’s eyes widened with pleasure. My chicken liver parfait was a generous offering (well three large offerings really) of creamy, dreamy paté with a perfectly dressed rocket salad and an accompaniment of sweet red onion marmalade – Christmas and New Year rolled into one. The portions are large be warned, but for a gannet like me, well, that’s just fine.

Generous chicken liver parfait for starters at Wild Woods

Next came mains.Oh boy times two. Pete is famous for his pork belly and well he should be. The perfect amount of crackling, a generous pool of sauce and a great big dollop of mash meant Loverboy was seriously happy. I opted for the roast beef with my favourite of favourites…Yorkshire pud. It was one of those meals that is everything you imagined it to be – every childhood roast beef memory tied up with how the perfect plate would taste today – with a healthy dollop of horseradish cream and a proper meaty reduction with a slightly sweet tang. Heaven. I’ll say it again. Heaven. Our choices were decidedly meaty but the Wild Woods menu has some impressive offerings for veggies too – the onion tarte tatin sounded delicious and no doubt the likes of Pete’s own-cured salmon will fly out the kitchen.

There are no pictures of our main courses, because I forgot. I was so drunk on heady foodie flavours that pix were the last thing on my mind. After our lovely lunch we drove home in comfortable silence, read the papers and had an early night – it was a perfect Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday evenings at Wild Woods, Pete prepares Slow Food Sundays…where a Sunday meal is served homestyle – with everyone passing around the various elements of the meal to pile on their plates – what a fab idea.

If you haven’t booked, please do yourself a favour.

Wild Woods, next door to the Chapmans Peak Hotel, Hout Bay, 021 791-1166

Open Tuesday to Sunday for dinner, Saturday and Sunday lunch