New brunch concept catches on

By Lindsey Turnbull

Italians are known the world over for their fantastic hospitality, especially when it comes to the entire family, so you know the Italian proprietors at Catch, Walter Fajette and Cristiano Vincentini, are on to a winner with their brand new brunch that offers family-style courses where everyone can dig in.

Catch is set in Morgan’s Harbour in West Bay, a gorgeous spot for enjoying cooling sea breezes and panoramic views of the coastline and ocean beyond. Boats large and small dot the harbour and the entire location is conducive to unhurried enjoyment of your meal. Seating is set over two spacious ocean-front decks and also inside.

Walter said the family-style Sunday brunch concept was launched just last month after discussion with their new chef RJ. He is also excited about his collaboration with well-known American chef Ken Vedrinski, executive chef, owner and sommelier of Trattoria Lucca, in Charleston, South Carolina. Chef Ken’s claim-to-fame is that he managed to win on the Food Network’s Beat Bobby Flay programme, not an easy feat for any chef.

“We are really pleased that Ken is working with us to create new concepts such as our Sunday brunch,” Walter said. “We have lots of exciting new ideas for the brunch, including a huge paella that we will be cooking next week, which can easily serve 20 people!”

Their latest brunch features a delicious array of appetisers that makes you want to dive in as soon as they are served, including smoked fish pâté, chicken liver parfait, local fruit chutney, white bean hummus, wahoo ceviche and chickpea fried cauliflower with capers and chilli. The lime-infused ceviche was lovely after the rich pâté and chicken liver parfait (served with thin and crunchy toasts) and the cauliflower was surprisingly ‘meaty’ and fabulous with the chilli. There were a ton of textures and flavours to enjoy in this first course and you could have just gone on eating plates of these well-thought out appetisers.

On to the eggs Benedict section, made to your specific choosing by Chef Elia. Mine included spinach, mushrooms and smoked salmon but it could have easily had rum and honey glazed ham or lobster sausage as well. Eggs poached to perfection (how do they do that?) with a nice dollop of Hollandaise on the top. Perfect brunch food.

For mains, Chef RJ and his team manned the grill station and offered a really impressive array of choices, including Moroccan lamb kofka (minced lamb on a kebab), wahoo skewers with tomatoes and onions (a personal favourite), stuffed calamari, seared flank steak with a vinegary herby chimichurri sauce and lobster and pineapple skewers. Their Mexican street corn was also delicious, the flavour ramped up with the addition of a spicy aioli (garlic mayonnaise). Mains were served with family style sides of warm potato salad and Brussel sprouts.

For a sweet finish, desserts were brought to the table family style and could be brought to diners in any numbers and included lemon curd tart, millionaire shortbread and chocolate pots with hazelnuts.

As is customary with Sunday brunches, there was a never-ending supply of bubbles in the form of Lunetta Prosecco, but to just stick to the bubbles and miss the Appleton Estate rum-inspired cocktails would have been a mistake. Choices included their Bodden’s Punch, with cucumber tea, falernun (a sweet, ginger-based syrup), seasonal fruit and ginger added to their Appleton’s Reserve rum, as well as their Fruit for the Soul cocktail, which was reminiscent of a Pina Colada but without all the heavy cream, consisting of Appleton Reserve rum, pineapple and coconut milk. An Aperol spritz with Aperol, Luneta Prosecco and soda was another good cocktail choice, as it was light and wouldn’t weigh too heavily on diners when all that lovely food was available!

Congrats to Walter, Cristiano and the team at Catch for innovative dining that’s sure to be a staple brunch location for the island.