A marble to behold: Wagyu burgers, straight from the farm to a city table

The Wagyu burger at the brand new Prime Wagyu eatery on Beach Road in Strand. (Photo: Supplied)

By Kit Heathcock

2 Aug 2024

A new breed of farm-to-table eateries is emerging. Wagyu farmers are cutting out the middleman and upping the stakes in the city with some flipping fine Wagyu burgers.

Wagyu beef is something that you’d usually associate with fine dining and upmarket steakhouses rather than street food joints, but not any more.

Word-of-mouth whispers about a next-level new burger joint were percolating through Cape Town, and I’d walked past the unassuming but clearly Kloof Street-cool spot (just along from the hubbub of Blondie) several times before I ventured in.

Burgers aren’t generally something I get all that excited about. A narrow slip of an eatery, exposed brick walls, a handful of tables, and a counter at the back where you order and pay before grabbing a seat, Zuney Wagyu Burgers is simple and unpretentious, leaving it to the Wagyu beef itself to do the talking. There are three Wagyu burger options (classic, cheeseburger, wacon burger plus a vegan one), and from the first bite we were looking at each other over the brioche buns and mumbling through a juicy, intensely umami mouthful, “this might just be the best burger I’ve had in my life”.

Why burgers?

Free-range Wagyu herds roam the pastures of the Zuney farm in the Eastern Cape. (Photo: Supplied)

Zuney is the name of the Eastern Cape valley where Henk Klopper and neighbour Denys Wells have been farming pasture-grazing Wagyu herds since 2014. The sons of the two families, Henning Klopper and Devin Wells, then started a butchery selling Wagyu beef direct to restaurants all over South Africa.

But, with sustainability and using the whole animal being the ultimate goal, a dilemma arose in the demand for their Wagyu steaks.

“There is so much more to an animal than just its steaks, those only make up about 10% of a carcass,” Henning Klopper tells me. “We had a point two years ago when we were just buying freezers to store all the Wagyu mince and fat. We realised that we needed to tackle the problem head on and find a solution to get the balance of the whole animal. So we came up with the idea to start selling burgers ourselves.”

A gazebo selling burgers in Kenton-on-Sea was soon followed by a food truck, which Klopper remembers towing behind his VW Golf at 60km/h all the way from Cape Town to Johannesburg to flip Wagyu burgers at a Kamers market, then turning around and driving all the way back again.

“I think that was very important for our development because we could try slightly different things and then get direct feedback.”

Before they opened their first brick-and-mortar outlet on Cape Town’s Kloof Street in 2023 they were refining the burger recipe up until the very last minute, and thanks to their contacts through selling Wagyu to the restaurant industry were able to get feedback from the very best.

“We made burgers for a whole lot of top chefs, people like Pete Goffe-Wood, Reuben Riffel, Matt van den Berg and Jason Kosmos, and then they steered us on the right path. At the time, our house sauce was a lot more tomato sauce-based than it is now.

One week before opening we cooked up a burger for chef Ollie Swart and he said: “Listen, your ratios are out. Scale down on the tomato sauce and up on mustard. The sweetness of tomato sauce disguises the flavour of beef, but mustard brings it out.”

They heeded the advice, did a quick turnaround and opened the store late in 2023, since when the uncomplicatedly delicious burgers with Wagyu infused onions, pickles and the perfected house sauce, (together with chips cooked in Wagyu fat that have a biltong-tinged umami moreishness), have quickly won a devoted following.

From Japan to South Africa

Henning Klopper, Shogo Takeda and Henk Klopper outside a Wagyu restaurant in Japan. (Photo: Supplied)

So what is it about Wagyu that has it headlining on high-end menus across the country? The meat is known for its spider’s web of marbling, buttery texture, and a rich flavour particular to the distinctive Japanese breed of cattle. The breed first arrived in South Africa in the late 1990s, but by 2014 when the Klopper and Wells families decided to convert their herds from Angus to Wagyu and establish Zuney Wagyu, they were only the eighth farm in the country to do so.

“All Wagyu outside Japan today was exported by a guy called Mr Shogo Takeda between the 1960s and the late Eighties.” says Klopper. “Then Japan closed their border so that you can no longer export any live animal, semen or embryos out of Japan. So all Wagyu here today is traceable back to the Takeda farm in Japan, mostly via Australia or the USA.”

Henk and Henning Klopper were lucky enough to meet Takeda when they travelled to Japan for the Rugby World Cup in 2019. He welcomed them to his farm and showed them the whole operation.

“The biggest question that we asked Mr Takeda is what makes the taste of Wagyu different,” says Klopper. “He told us it’s a three-prong determination: 50% the genetics, in the sense of breeding one generation for marbling and then the next generation for milk to give the strongest possible calf. Then 30% is the feed. You are what you eat and that is a very important part of it. The last 20% which ties into the Japanese model is the cortisol level, essentially the animal living a low-stress life.”

Happy, unstressed cattle are an essential part of what makes Wagyu the real deal. Zuney herds are free-ranging, grazing over five farms (totalling 2,250 hectares) that are rich in natural pasture, grasses, thornveld, valley bushveld and natural forest. They’re herded into kraals as rarely as possible to keep stress to a minimum. In Japan the cattle would be grain-fed, which gives more distinctive marbling to the meat, but Klopper feels that the grass-fed approach gives a better flavour and, with varied indigenous vegetation included in the grazing, the meat gains a sense of terroir.

Wagyu on the West Coast

Free-ranging herds of sheep, Wagyu and Angus cattle graze the coastal pastures of LA Farms on South Africa’s West Coast. (Photo: Supplied)

Terroir is also something that LA Farms prides itself on. The West Coast family farm between St Helena Bay and Velddrif raises herds of Wagyu and Angus cattle, which roam alongside sheep, grazing among grasses and indigenous fynbos along the coastline, herded on horseback for minimum stress to the animals.

“It’s the only place on the planet where free-range lamb, grass-fed Angus and certified Wagyu are being farmed together on the coast,” says Harun Moreira of LA Farms. “You’ve got the sea breeze blowing over the land, bringing a higher mineral content, which gives a different flavour profile to the meat.”

The health factor of Wagyu is something that particularly interests Moreira. Browsing the shelves and fridges of LA Farms’ new Green Point eatery/deli/butchery (which is start-to-finish halaal) it feels like a temple to the health-focused, sustainably minded, whole food journey: Wagyu bone broth, raw milk, fermented foods, organic vegetables, and a long butchery counter devoted exclusively to free-range, pasture-raised meat from the farm.

“Very simply put, Wagyu has a higher concentration of monounsaturated fats in the meat, which is part of the reason why it has so much flavour,” he says.

“Monounsaturated fat is a healthy fat, it’s good for your cholesterol. When I started in this business, people would ask what is marbling and why is it healthy? I’d explain it as similar to salmon; you’ll see the white streaks in salmon that is monounsaturated fat and high in omega 3 and 6. It’s the same thing in Wagyu, except it looks more like a spider web of fat in the meat. I’ve no doubt it’s the healthiest red meat on the planet.”

The distinctive marbling of fat is what gives Wagyu beef its distinctive buttery texture and intense flavour. (Photo: Supplied)

The farm originally started as a family weekend getaway with an organic vegetable garden and a few animals to feed the family. Soon friends were clamouring for a share of the meat.

“We were getting a carcass cut up and packed by a butcher we knew, then I’d be delivering boxes of lamb from the back of my wife’s car once a month.”

In 2017 he opened a halaal butchery in Wynberg selling online, where they soon started producing their own range of charcuterie, in particular their Angus beef salamis, which won gold in the international Aurora Challenge awards in 2023.

The LA Farms burger journey started with a homemade recipe.

“I made burgers from our own meat one Friday night for the family, and everyone was less than impressed. I was actually a bit upset. And I thought, hold on, I’m going to make a really, really good burger. I started developing it myself and about three months later we had a family holiday.

Inside the LA Farms deli. (Photo: Kit Heathcock)

“I made burgers again and everyone started coming back for more and more. I knew I had something good here because they’re very pedantic. And then I tried it through a food truck and it was a hit. That’s the burger we’ve got on the menu here today.”

The burger patty is 100% Wagyu, zero additives, with a light bun, an organic prego relish, Cheddar cheese, wild rocket, house-made aioli sauce and their own pickles.

You might have noticed a reference to wacon on the Zuney burger menu… at LA Farms it features on the menu as macon. Both are essentially house names for smoked strips of Wagyu brisket. The marbled fat means that it works brilliantly as a replacement for bacon, whether in a burger or on a breakfast plate.

“The nice thing about cooking with Wagyu is that you don’t really need to use cooking agents like oils, because the monounsaturated fat helps lather the pan or the grill,” says Moreira.

Simple but packed with flavour, the LA Farms brisket burger. (Photo: Kit Heathcock)

At the family-friendly eatery looking out onto the street, in between people watching as Green Point food shoppers flitted between Giovanni’s and LA Farms to forage for their essential groceries, I tasted the Wagyu brisket burger. Also Moreira’s homegrown recipe, it’s a flavour bomb of smoky strips of meat folded into a pile and doused in a Mississippi sauce with a hint of chilli, and Cheddar cheese. Delicious as it was, next time I’d go for their classic Wagyu burger to try to discern the taste of terroir in the meat.

From Free State to Strand

And then there were three… In Strand, another established Wagyu farm is opening their own farm-to-table restaurant. Prime Wagyu is both the name of the herd on a farm in the Free State and the name of the new restaurant on Beach Road, overlooking False Bay, where burgers, beers and sunset cocktails are on the menu.

Johan Strydom took over the family farm in the Free State, which was at the time devoted to game farming, when his father wanted to retire. He’d come across Wagyu beef in the UK where he’d worked as an actuary and opened two restaurants over the past 20 years.

“It seemed like an interesting niche market where the farmer can stay in the value chain for longer and just a better all-round product,” he says.

“I think Wagyu is a revolution in the making in South Africa. People are still more price-sensitive. But they are starting to understand the difference between mass production and things which are crafted by people who care more about the quality,” he says.

“The price sensitivity is probably a bit of an issue on the steak side. But there’s a big part of the animal that is quite affordable, especially the trim products like burgers, sausages, pies and so on. And that’s the biggest part of the animal.”

When it came to deciding on the focus of the new restaurant, his thinking ran along the same lines as Zuney and LA Farms.

“Ironically, my experience is that the steak side that people think is so expensive, is what sells the easiest. That’s the biggest demand. But if you can introduce the South African market to an affordable product, then you balance out your carcass. You manage to sell your trim, not just the steaks.”

The Wagyu burger at the brand new Prime Wagyu eatery on Beach Road in Strand. (Photo: Supplied)

The focus at the new restaurant is chic but casual: Wagyu burgers with Darling Brewery beer on tap. There’ll be blackboard specials featuring Wagyu steaks, with plans to introduce people to the huge variety of Wagyu cuts through Wagyu tastings. A small retail section run by Butcher & Son will sell Wagyu beef cuts by day and you’ll be able to get it cooked on site shisa nyama style. As we spoke Strydom was waiting for one last permit and the restaurant is due to open on 7 August 2024.

Certified Wagyu

One last point, emphasised by all three farms: Traceability is a vital factor for authentic Wagyu, given the importance of the genetics in both the quality and the flavour of the meat. It’s something the Wagyu Society of South Africa is working hard to establish countrywide, so that consumers can be confident that the beef that they are paying a premium for really is Wagyu, with DNA traceable all the way back to the original Japanese herds.

Look out for a Wagyu South Africa certificate displayed in all restaurants serving certified Wagyu. DM

You can read more about Wagyu protocols and the growth of the industry in South Africa in this article by TGIFood Editor Tony Jackman

More about Zuney Wagyu https://zuneywagyu.com

More about LA Farms https://lafarms.co.za

More about Prime Wagyu https://primewagyu.co.za/

Follow Kit Heathcock on Instagram @kitheathcock

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