Young chefs cook up a storm in junior chef competition
A young chef, only a few months in the trade, scooped the Gold Medal at the 2017 Junior Chef competition hosted by the Namibian Chefs Association at the Silver Spoon Hospitality Academy at the Old Power Station in Windhoek last week.
Johannes Tieties received the top overall mark, earning him the gold. The silver medal was won by Andreas Iikukutu of JoJo’s Arts and Musci Cafe with Brendall Masambo of Westlane Superspar taking bronze.
This was the biggest competion for junior chefs to date with 33 entrants.
Chef Shaun Smith from Fusion Hotel School in Durban and Director of Education for the South African Chefs Association, was the Head Judge. “With his help we established a new judging system taking into consideration all aspects of what makes a good chef” said vice president of the Namibian Chefs Association, Sean Stevenson.
Certificates in the Bronze category for Kitchen Excellence were awarded to Abel Simon of The Tug Restaurant, Roelf Diergaardt of The Wreck, Johannes Petrus van Niekerk of Stellenbosch Tasting Room, Sharon Matatias of the Silver Spoon academy and Johannes Tieties, also of the academy.
Certificates for Overall Performance were awarded to Andreas Iikukutu of JoJo’s Arts and Music Cafe, Popyeni Nghimutina of the Namibia University of Science and Technology, Keathan van Rooi of Curious Kitchen, Ean Oberholzer of Stellenbosch Tasting Room, and Bianca Fourie, Caylynne Clarke and Azeem Kadwa, all three also of the Silver Spoon academy.
Chef Shaun explained the importance of hygienic processes as well as the importance of their preparation and planning in the competition environment. He went into further detail about what the participants should keep in mind regarding judging criteria and what the judges would be looking for.
“It is very encouraging to see these young chefs test themselves at this level and we were glad to see that there is some hidden talent in the country. The judging panel selected 12 participants as part of the Junior Namibian Squad. From this training squad, a final team will be selected to represent Namibia at the African Culinary Cup later this year in Mauritius at junior level” said Chef Sean.
The Senior Chef of the Year competition is scheduled for 06 and 07 July 2017 at the Hotel School at the University of Science and Technology.
