Caffé Milano is bellissima!

Master pastry chef Vanessa Quellec brings Milan to Kloof St.

There’s something a little bit Alice-in-Wonderland-y about Vanessa Quellec—she has a dreamy nature that’s under-pinned by tenacious ambition. A beautiful girl too, with brown eyes like melting chocolate (sorry I couldn’t resist.) Once head pastry chef and shareholder of The Roundhouse in Camps Bay, she’s now opened her very own pasticceria with restaurant don, Giorgio Nava (he’s rapidly cornering the market). Caffé Milano, on upper Kloof, is unassuming from the outside, so much so, that it doesn’t even have a sign.

Vanessa laughs when I mention this, “We’re getting it made. But it hasn’t stopped us from being busy!” The pasticceria-cum-restaurant which opened in January, already has a devoted following. Not surprising, when pukka breakfast spots are scarce in this town.

Vanessa looks a little tired today. “I went to bed late last night. I did a Valrhona Chocolate tasting in Stellenbosch and only got home around 10pm.” Now this may seem like a perfectly normal time for us mere mortals, but for the pastry gods, it means only three hours sleep. From 2am, every morning, Vanessa and her team can be found pounding butter into dough.

Italian pastries as light as a feather

She has nothing but praise for her staff, “Everyone that works here is passionate, nobody’s just doing a ‘job’. Vanessa describes the pasticceria’s style as “extremely fresh.”  No pastries or bread are kept for the next day, if they’re not sold, the goods are carted off to the homeless shelter. “Giorgio also buys the fruit in the morning [for the tarts] from a local market,” she continues.

“I have a great working relationship with Giorgio. I’ve never seen anyone work so hard, he works 18-hour days.”

The interior is as clean and fresh as the menu—simple, uncluttered lines, bespoke wooden furniture, and white the unifying colour. The caffé is ultimately decorated with the bakery’s products. Jewel-like fruit tarts sparkle at the front counter, rough-textured sour dough breads stack along the shelving, and orchids crafted out of icing tumble down display cakes in the front windows.

“One minute,” says Vanessa getting up, “I just need to stir some chocolate on the stove.” On her return she’s brought us coffee and pastries.  The cannoncino is an immediate hit—light ‘cannon’ shape pastry filled with custard. When I admire its twirled shape Vanessa says, “I brought the sticks I shape it with from Italy.

Before the caffé opened, Giorgio sent Vanessa to work in a patiscerria in Milan. “I worked there for three-months. It was the best time of my life.”

Those months paid off. Expect all kinds of light authentic Italian pastry from bombolone to torte. There’s not just baked goods on offer though, for breakfast, feast on cinnamon and pecan brioche French toast or an Eggs Benedict (the eggs are sourced from Spier’s bio-dynamic farm).  Lunch is a lighter affair; try the Norwegian salmon with brown rice and zucchini or one of the many ‘L’Insalatas’, vibrant bowls of micro-greens, mozzarella and premium produce.

As I get up to leave, Vanessa quickly stops me, “wait I’ve ordered you French toast. You will eat it won’t you?”

I sit down again as a plate piled high with sticky brioche toast, crème fraîche and caramelised bananas makes it way to me. After all, how could I say no to those melting-chocolate eyes?

By Malu Lambert | photographs by Antonia Heil

153 Kloof Street | Gardens | Cape Town | +27 (0)21 426 5566 

*Since the writing of this article Vanessa Quellec has been replaced with Milanese chef, Andrea Lecchi.

Opening Times: Tuesday to Sunday, 7am – 5pm 

For more bakeries in Cape Town, go here.

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