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<\/p>\nDespite the antiquated name, \u2018this is very much a restaurant of the moment\u2019 noted Michelin. At the apex of the team stands head chef, Taz Sarhane, bespectacled and born in south-east London to English-Moroccan parents. He took the helm in 2024 at 28, a forager with a preservationist streak, fermenting, dry-aging, and favouring mushrooms to power a distinctive, British-produce-led cuisine. Steyn\u2019s task is to meet this intent in the glass.<\/p>\n
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The aesthetic of Cycene suits Steyn. Off the floor he carries an old-school film camera, his eye trained at night school, mirroring how he builds pairings – attentive to light, grain, and texture. \u2018I studied at Cape Town Photographers College while working, always on film – I prefer it to digital. I focus on landscapes and nature.\u2019<\/p>\n
Before the lens came heat and steel, pastry benches and vineyard practicals – a hands-on beginning which set the course for everything which followed.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u2018I went to catering college at 16, then apprenticed at the SA Chefs Academy. My block was at Klein Constantia and Sant\u00e9 Wellness Retreat in Paarl, on La Bella Vita Wine Estate. Then short stints in pastry at the Cape Grace Hotel on the V&A Waterfront, specialising as a pastry chef.\u2019 The fascination with wine followed. \u2018I got the wine bug, but there wasn\u2019t WSET back then in South Africa, so I did basic wine studies at the Cape Winemakers Guild. Then I found myself front of house at The Test Kitchen, where I committed to wine.\u2019 London, he judged, would be the place to gain WSET qualifications and chase opportunity. \u2018I moved here 10 years ago – 2015.\u2019<\/p>\n
Mentors surfaced quickly. \u2018It must be my faculty leader at chef school – Billy Swart. He instilled in me a passion for food and hospitality. But I\u2019ve met so many amazing people in the Cape and London.\u2019 Another formative chapter was Noble Rot, Soho, where Steyn worked as senior sommelier for four and a half years with Joshua Castle, now Head Buyer for Noble Rot\u2019s Bloomsbury, Mayfair, and Soho branches, as well as its distribution arm, Keeling Andrew. \u2018We\u2019re still very good friends.\u2019<\/p>\n
What matters most at Cycene is the dialogue between sommelier and kitchen. \u2018At the start of each week, Taz and I sit down, go through the dishes which are changing, and do a little tasting together,\u2019 says Steyn. \u2018I Coravin a couple of things which might work. I\u2019m lucky our palates are so closely aligned.\u2019<\/p>\n
That alignment runs through the food itself. \u2018We\u2019re hyper seasonal. Proteins are broken down by us – we work closely with Herefordshire farmer, Tom Jones, who raises native breeds; whole or half carcasses come in.\u2019 The dry-ager is on view to guests, turning the dining room into a kind of studio where ideas cure in public.<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/figure><\/a><\/figure><\/a><\/figure><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\nThe results reach the glass in three flights. \u2018There\u2019s a British pairing – homegrown wine such as Danbury Ridge, Tillingham, or Walgate, dry cider, and, because local sweet wines are still hard to come by, sometimes an ice cider. Then a Premium Classic pairing, mostly European – grower champagne alongside new-wave South Africa. Finally, the soft pairing is also Steyn\u2019s domain. \u2018All ferments and teas and kombuchas, a mix we make in-house.\u2019<\/p>\n
He recalls a standout pairing: \u2018A summery dish of British line-caught tuna, using the rich toro, served raw with pineapple-weed custard, pickled green strawberries, and British plums. We matched it with The Wharie Experience, a dark saign\u00e9e ros\u00e9. Its freshness balanced the fatty richness of the fish, while echoing the fruit in the accompaniments. The wine is the work of Guillaume Lagger, a Swiss oenologist we collaborate with directly. He launched a micro-winery in Hampshire in 2020, initially vinifying neighbours\u2019 grapes while he established his own PIWI plantings. Today he works with Orion and produces a skin-contact Bacchus.\u2019<\/p>\n
The brief from Sarhane and James Brown was to tell stories via the producers, notes Steyn, who sees the list as a conversation rather than a catalogue. His own roots show most clearly in the South African section: \u2018Eben Sadie with back vintages, aged Klein Constantia, Mullineux, Testalonga, and the raw energy of Sakkie Mouton. A movable feast.\u2019<\/p>\n
He is exacting about thresholds. \u2018I\u2019m sensitive to oak in whites if it\u2019s too much, and to over-extraction in reds. I don\u2019t gravitate towards those. Balance is crucial and key for any wine, as is context. And I love all grapes – it\u2019s important to try as many things as possible.\u2019<\/p>\n
Portugal, he points out, offers superb white styles from the Azores, their volcanic soils recalling Tenerife and the Canaries. \u2018We have a lot of seafood and fish on the menu – those saline, mineral styles really work.\u2019 And then there is Greece. \u2018Outside of Santorini, which suffered its worst vintage on record, there is Crete and the mainland.\u2019<\/p>\n
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The dining room seats 16, while the rooftop garden suits more informal stand-up receptions. \u2018We cater to the client: always British fizz on reception, then whatever else the cellar or their taste requires.\u2019 A small, dynamic team – the focus is on making sure everything is on point. \u2018We have the luxury of being slightly smaller and detail-oriented.\u2019 Recent takeovers have ranged from a private seven-course N25 caviar event, to the launch of Highland Park 56, which ended with guests gathered around a fire pit.<\/p>\n
For a last supper he would set two places for visionaries who bent time to their will. \u2018Leonardo da Vinci and David Bowie. For Leonardo, a formidable grower Champagne – Ulysse Collin or Selosse – to blow his mind. For David Bowie, something more simple. I did some reading – he liked Spanish wine – a Ribera del Duero, or really old-school Tondonia from the 1940s or 1950s.\u2019<\/p>\n
And if not wine? \u2018I\u2019d have been a pastry chef. Though I still have dreams of starting an agriturismo – horticulture, cultivating – right up my street.<\/i><\/p>\n
Perhaps Italy, Greece, or Portugal – I have roots in all three. Maybe in between.\u2019 For now, the in-between is Shoreditch, where a film camera, a dry-ager and a list of growers draw a line between Cape Town light and London night – between precision and pleasure, the poles by which Steyn sets his course.<\/p>\n
Glasses (via Coravin)<\/i><\/p>\n