AURUM means gold in Latin and is an apt name for the restaurant that opened its doors in 2019 on the 7th floor of SA and Africa’s tallest new building, The Leonardo, close to Johannesburg’s Sandton City. I went to one of the opening dinners then, a casual feast that involved many delicious courses on a set menu.
Having locked down for a few months, the restaurant is now open and buzzing, as I discovered when I went there again a few weeks ago on a school night. It was practically full of well-heeled gourmands ordering to their particular tastes off the newly introduced summer menu.
AURUM is the brainchild of esteemed chef and culinary consultant Paulo Santo, in collaboration with the Legacy Group and its chairperson, Bart Dorrestein.
“AURUM represents luxury, but not in an intimidating, pretentious or ostentatious manner,” says Paulo. Speaking about the new menu, he says the team has steered away from the hero-ingredient philosophy and instead worked towards exalting all the ingredients on the plate.
“Our new menu will not just honour a well-marbled piece of meat or a fresh fillet of fish, but through technique and careful manipulation we’ve strived to hero all the accompaniments that bring the dish to life. We want our patrons to enjoy a unique and exciting experience with every bite,” he says.
At first glance of the menu everything sounds delicious — some of the key dishes are a beetroot starter with the superb use of artisanal stracciatella cheese, prawn risotto, wonderfully light yet full of flavour, and ricotta gnocchi.
Spoiled for choice, my dinner date and I found it difficult to pick just two from the starter menu, which we promised each other we’d share. I had the Saldanha Bay oysters with smokey rice dressing and coriander, which seemed like the perfect launch into summer, and they were fresh and delicious.
My friend had salmon ceviche with gooseberry aquachile, charred corn and red onion. Once she’d tasted it she wanted to renege on the sharing deal, though she thought the corn combination was slightly odd.
The main courses ended up becoming a slight tussle of will between the two of us as we both fancied the prawn risotto with Arborio rice in shellfish broth with rosa tomatoes and herb buerre blanc. She relented, choosing between the pork belly with citrus-cured cabbage, bok choy, broccolini, ginger and crackling crumble or the sea bass with lemon curd, black pepper mayo, garden pea textures and crisp potato croquette. She picked the latter and was not sorry.
According to our server, the star of the dessert menu is the new AURUM “Magnum” ice cream, pretty as a picture and pure indulgence in the form of a frozen caramel mousse, hazelnuts and dark chocolate. Though we talked ourselves into having three of the offerings to share: citrus cheesecake with white chocolate, lemon cream and candied citrus and the brandy and date “pudding” with 70 dates, pecan nuts, apple toffee and vanille creme anglais. Despite the abundance of sweetness, there was not a crumb left on our plates.
“Changing the menu seasonally is a chance for our chefs to deliver new expression and for us to progress as a restaurant. It also allows for our team to develop and for us to deliver new knockout showpieces for our patrons to indulge in,” says Paulo.
AURUM’s food is inspired by contemporary European cuisine and delivered with a South African touch. Dishes are restrained and simplicity is key to showcase the very best of local producers, farmers and artisans. Care is always taken to consider the coming months from a sustainability perspective and to strike a balance with food trends and guest expectations.
Overlooking the lifestyle hub of The Leonardo building, AURUM offers more than just a culinary journey. There’s a pool to swim in and dine around, a supervised kids’ play area, a sundowner spot at Octo Bar, a fully stocked wine library and the adjacent Legacy Balance spa.
