Seasoned British chef opens a bistro in Stellenbosch

A deathly chocolate tart. (Photo: Georgina Crouth)

By Georgina Crouth

5 Jul 2024

Chef Phil Carmichael has trained under culinary luminaries in the UK and Europe, and now brings his global know-how to the City of Oaks.

He completed his culinary training in London under a master of classical French cooking, Michel Roux Jnr, whose acclaimed two-star Michelin restaurant, Le Gavroche, garnered a Michelin star for a restaurant in Prague within a year of its opening. He counts culinary luminaries Roux Jnr, Gordon Ramsay, and Jason Atherton as his mentors, and has won BBC’s Great British Menu for Wales — twice.

Now, after a recent stint at the Spier Manor House and a cheffing consultancy in Stellenbosch, Phil Carmichael has opened a bistro in the heart of the City of Oaks.

The Mill St Bistro opened barely two weeks ago and already it’s apparent that word has got out about Carmichael’s talents.

It’s been full on, he tells me, and was made more challenging by a pre-opening injury that saw him snap a bicep tendon and put one arm out of commission. Apparently it looked worse than it was, and his arm is now back in action, but it couldn’t have been comfortable working in a newly opened kitchen with a restaurant full of mouths to feed.

Welshman Carmichael attended Cowbridge Comprehensive School in the town of Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, near Cardiff. He started working as a pot washer in a local restaurant at the age of 15. By 16, realising school wasn’t for him, he dropped out after completing his GCSEs and joined a chef’s apprentice scheme. He’s never looked back.

Jars upon jars of pickled and fermented foods, above, and wood-fired puffy flatbread, below. (Photos: Georgina Crouth)

In 2003, he decided to work abroad. He had already done a year’s stint with Albert Roux at Cafe Roux in Amsterdam, and Atherton was about to open Verre for Ramsay in Dubai. But the timing wasn’t right: while Carmichael had applied for the sous chef position, Atherton had already relocated to London. Then he received a call from Ramsay’s protegé, “out of the blue”, asking him to come around for a chat about a new restaurant – the original Maze, in London.

Atherton had a huge influence on Carmichael, he says, which was a big learning curve and got him to where he is today.

The Roux brothers, who gave him his first international gig as well as employment at Le Gavroche (which closed in January this year), are similarly hugely dominant figures in his career. It was Albert Roux who taught both Ramsay, Marco Pierre White and Marcus Wareing how to cook.

There are thousands of recipes in our TGIFood Archive, as well as every food story Georgina Crouth, Tony Jackman and their colleagues have written in the last five and more years. Find the archive here.

Le Gavroche was next level. Carmichael said his mind was blown by what you can do with food, how you can make people feel, how you can influence people’s moods or make their day just by cooking food for them.

“It was a phenomenal, phenomenal time in my career.”

To survive two years at Le Gavroche was pretty hard going, but it taught him much about respect for produce, keeping things simple and working your absolute ass off.

“I was literally running from eight o’clock in the morning till 12 o’clock at night, just non-stop. It’s a tough kitchen. But Michel Jnr is one of the nicest chefs, the nicest man, and one of the most supportive people in the industry. I mean, you can’t praise him highly enough.”

Ramsay, who had already had three stars for a couple of years, was all over television. His restaurants were about striving to achieve greatness and perfection every day.

“He’s a machine. He’s an absolute non-stop workaholic machine, and the most gifted chef Britain’s probably ever produced.”

It was tough with Ramsay, as it was with Atherton, with whom he worked for 17 years, all over the world including in Cape Town, where they launched Maze at One&Only.

“It was the best time, with incredibly inspiring people.”

Opening Maze London was a test of courage, he says, because Atherton and he didn’t know each other, they were opening a restaurant for Ramsay, and were under huge pressure because of the prestige. The two clicked: Carmichael was the first person hired for Maze, and Atherton quickly showed him what a full-on work ethic meant.

“He was in the kitchen morning, noon and night, relentlessly. He showed me more about running the business side of things and obviously cooking. He’s a phenomenal chef.”

In those subsequent years, Carmichael achieved his own successes: as executive chef at Maze Prague, he garnered a Michelin star within the first year of its opening. He’s also worked at the celebrated Berners Tavern (another of Atherton’s restaurants), before moving to South Africa in 2021.

At Mill Street Bistro, Carmichael champions South Africa’s bounty on his French-inspired plates. He partners with independent local farmers, producers, and fishermen to ensure the freshest, most seasonal and sustainable ingredients on his menu. It’s about having a passion for provenance and telling the story of how food arrived on the plate.

Carmichael incorporates plenty of fermentation, pickling and preserving (habits picked up during Covid-19 and honed).

We shied clear of the prime rib of grass-fed beef with turbo mash, braised cheek, beer-battered onion rings and side salad, which will not only set you back R850, but could probably be enough for six. Apparently, someone has ordered that just for themselves.

Beef tartare. (Photo: Supplied)

The wild Kalahari beef tartare is served with cured egg yolk, pickled mushrooms and a sublime grilled flatbread that can also be ordered on its own with fermented garlic and parsley butter.

His pork belly is slow baked in the wood-fired pizza oven and served with a pickled apple and chilli tomato sauce, sauerkraut, crackling and pickled mustard seeds that pop in the mouth. Tender and flavoursome, this crowd-pleasing plate had everything one could ask for: acidity to cut the fattiness of the pork; smokiness; explosions of mustard; and a lovely spiced fruity tomato sauce as a dip.

Rib-eye beef from a Kalahari farmer, left, and pork belly, right. (Photos: Georgina Crouth)

The standout dish is the wild Kalahari free range grass-fed beef rib-eye, served with a baby gem salad, chips, and burnt spicy aubergine ketchup — exquisitely succulent and deeply flavoured, I could have eaten just the steak without any trimmings and been content.

A deathly chocolate tart. (Photo: Georgina Crouth)

For afters, our arms were twisted to try the bitter chocolate tart with a cookie crumble, and an Amarula and coffee ground ice cream, as well as malva madeleines with a miso butterscotch dipping sauce.

There’s a stunningly considered wine list, with many smaller producers featured alongside big names such as Pieter Ferreira, De Trafford, Glenwood and Nabygelegen, and an excellent wine-per-glass selection. DM

Lunch and dinner are served from Tuesday to Saturday.

Mill St Bistro, Cluver Markotter Building, Mill Street, Stellenbosch | +27 21 020 1301 | Booking through Dineplan

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