Test
Luke Dale-Roberts's The Test Kitchen followed a four-year-long tenure as the executive chef of La Colombe restaurant at the Constantia Uitsig wine estate in Constantia. Having honed his considerable skills in some of the most renowned kitchens in the world, Dale-Roberts had consistently proven his mettle with a string of awards and accolades.
The Test Kitchen, located in the trendy Biscuit Mill complex in Woodstock, was named number two restaurant in South Africa at the 2011 Eat Out DStv Food Network Restaurant Awards, which seeks to honour the best restaurants and chefs in the country. The restaurant, which opened in November 2010, sees the chef cooking his distinctive style of cuisine in an intimate space that also delights design aficionados.
Time magazine pinpointed the date November 24, 2010, as the day “Woodstock officially became Cape Town’s hottest district… when Luke Dale-Roberts opened The Test Kitchen there.” As its name implies, The Test Kitchen, though primarily a restaurant, affords Luke the opportunity for maximum innovation as a chef, as well as being a space to use as “the creative hub” for a variety of different projects, including regular cooking.