By Entertainment Reporter
THE kitchen will become a fierce battleground as competitor chefs will run in circles trying to beat the clock and cook the best three-course meal, for a prize.
This will be the sight tomorrow at the Polytechnic Hotel School Kitchen where 15 young chefs from Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Egypt and Mauritius will square off in the third African Culinary Cup, which the Namibia Chefs Association is hosting.
Teams made up of three young chefs all under the age of 25 from the various countries have entered the competition with the view of serving up the best dish.
Titled, bringing together junior African culinary teams, the competition is a platform for young chefs to network and compete in a professional and inspiring environment while promoting the culinary experience and skill.
Led by team manager, David Thomas, team Namibia will consist of Jo-Andiri Pretorius (The Taste Academy), Jeandre-Paul Basson (Restaurant la bonne table) and Stallin Steenkamp (Piccolo). The team was selected after a NCA cook off competition held in August.
Namibia won the inaugural competition in 2013 with a menu which consisted of mussel terrine, smoked trout tartar with grape fruit and almond braised fennel with star aniseed, fennel mousse, honey pepper tuile, yoghurt and mustard
Meanwhile, the NCA in conjunction with the Polytechnic Hotel School successfully hosted a Schools Awareness Campaign to educate students on what the culinary industry holds.
NCA president Sanet Prinsloo said the aim of the campaign was to impart knowledge to student so that they know what is available in the country after they leave school.
“We are in dire need of trained chefs in our ever growing hospitality and tourism industry. To date, we have held three successful sessions, one in March and again two in September. We planned for about 20-30 students per session, but they kept turning up and in some sessions we ended up having up to 40 people.”
Prinsloo said the sessions were a huge success and demand for the next session was high.
“We have received requests and we do hope that such a campaign will become a regular event on the NCA calendar.”