Drrrrrrrrum Roll please! I am happy to announce that the names of the finalists from the Cape Town regional Mystery Basket cook-off have been released and I could not be more excited to reveal them to you. Like I mentioned in my first post over here the finalists from Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban will compete on the 6th September in Durban for a chance to be named Unilever Chef of the Year 2017.
After an intense day cooking up a storm in the Unilever kitchens on the 27th July, Kirstin Hellemann from Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel and Jean-Pierre Lenferna de la Motte from the Lord Charles Hotel came out tops in the Senior Category. Fernanda Cardoso from Chefs Warehouse and Canteen Bree Street and Caryn Fredericks from Woolworths South Africa won the Junior Category. Fernanda is an alumnus of the Cape Town Hotel School, she studied Professional Cookery for 3 years and completed extensive training under the watchful eye of Chef Liam Tomlinson. I wish her well for the remainder of the competition.
Other participants in the Senior Category were: Hayley Africa from Grandwest Casino; Phil de Villiers from Primal Eatery; Brandon Lategan and Grant Greg Lynott from Old Potters Inn & Brewhouse. The Junior Category was rounded out by Praise-God (Sihle) Zuma from Sun Square Garden Cape Town; Sabrina Mollers from The Wilderness Hotel and Amerae Vercueil from Highbury Media & Mojo Market.
The Senior Category tasting judges were South African chefs Henrico Grobbelaar (Executive Chef at The Marriott and Olympic Culinary Team captain 2016) and Kevin Gibbs (Western Province Regional Committee of SACA). Judges in the Junior Category were Nadin Pospech (WACS affiliated judge and owner of Top Nosh) and Joseph Govender (Executive Chef).
Some pictures of the Junior Category cook-off, provided by StratPR:
