Luke Dale-Roberts’ #BestMealEver

Diners Club International

“It was a bloody good time,” said Luke Dale-Roberts, recalling a recent #BestMealEver at Atera, a New York-based restaurant focused on highly seasonal, sensory cuisine. One of South Africa’s most celebrated chefs, Dale-Roberts was raised in the UK and trained in Switzerland and England before heading to Asia, where he launched restaurants in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and the Philippines. In 2010 he opened the Cape Town restaurant The Test Kitchen (No. 28, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2015), a 30-seat establishment that offers a multi-course dining experience focused on eclectic international cuisine.

The Test Kitchen

It’s not surprising that Dale-Roberts found a #BestMealEver experience at Atera. Similar to The Test Kitchen, Atera is small (the main dining room seats only 18), and the culinary focus is highly seasonal, multi-course dining driven toward evoking all of the senses.

Recalling his experience at Atera, Dale-Roberts noted that things got off “to a nice start.” A small dish of “pea ice cream with beer dressing” was “just so clean and pure.” “At that point, we knew we were in business,” he added. The ambiance at Atera was equally fulfilling. “There were only 18 people seated around this counter,” he said. “The staff is a lot of fun as well,” he observed. “If I’m honest,” he said, “the emotions I felt were enjoyment and happiness and just really good fun.”

Atera turned out to be a #BestMealEver experience that Luke Dale-Roberts won’t soon forget. The chef said he “walked out feeling inspired and elevated from the experience.”

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