“Veni, vidi, vici.” The ancient Latin phrase attributed to Julius Caesar could once again be revived to describe the achievements of four Silwood School of Cookery students in the RCL FOODS Young Chefs competition this month.
Although much humbler about their victory than the Roman general and statesman, the students also came, saw, and conquered at the competition finale held in Durban on Saturday 13 October when they achieved first and third place, respectively.
Sponsored by leading food manufacturer RCL Foods, the SA Chefs Association ran the competition, with Chef Adrian Vigus Brown, SA Chefs’ competition director, as the overall head judge. The finale featured two teams of two entrants from five regions: Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Gauteng, and Free State. The 10 teams achieved their spot in the final through their participation in regional cook-offs in September.
Following gruelling finals that tested a wide range of the competitors’ cheffing skills at the leading food manufacturer’s kitchens in Durban, Nicole Bowes and Matthew Maree proved to be the top team of two, with an over 90% score. Second place belonged to Matthew Van Heerden and Shanuel Zimba from 1000 Hills Chef School in KwaZulu-Natal with Kelly Fletcher and Kara Venter from Silwood short on their heels in third place.
At the prize-giving ceremony at Coastlands Umhlanga Hotel & Convention Centre, Brown congratulated all the competitors for putting themselves on the culinary map and assured them they were all winners. He encouraged them to make the competition experience a worthwhile investment in their careers.
“Take home your learnings and aim to improve consistently on what you achieved in these competitions,” he said.
Carianne Wilkinson, vice-principal of Silwood Cookery School, says they are thrilled and incredibly proud of their students. The school, based in Rondebosch, was founded in 1964 by Lesley Faull, Commanderie des Cordons Bleus de France. Over the past 58 years, Silwood has earned itself a world-class reputation and has remained a family-run business.
“All four of our winners are first-year students and it was their first-ever cookery competition. Being acknowledged for the skills they have acquired this year, is a true feather in their caps,” says Wilkinson.
The competition finals consisted of both predetermined elements and a mystery basket component. Competitors had to submit recipes for a restaurant main course and an innovation dessert course before the competition, which they then cooked on Saturday along with a mystery basket starter.
Wilkinson says the win for their students is not only a huge confidence booster and motivator but it also shows their ability to handle kitchen stress.
“The students had to design dishes using RCL products. Matt and Nicole’s recipes were particularly clever in the way they adapted the products to present fine dining plates. To have scored over 90% in a competition is quite an achievement. Gold medals are not awarded easily and especially not in student competitions,” says Wilkinson.
Bowes (22) hails from KwaZulu-Natal.
Before coming to Silwood, she completed a BA at Stellenbosch University, majoring in English and Philosophy. Her true passion and calling, however, is food and thus she enrolled at Silwood. She is interested in a career in product development.
She describes the competition as very intense.
“The expectations were high from having international judges on the panel.”
Maree (25) is from Grahamstown, Eastern Cape.
Before enrolling at Silwood, he was a professional hunting guide in the Niassa Reserve, Northern Mozambique. He one day wants a job that includes both nature and cooking with a focus on “field to fork” cooking. For Maree, the competition environment was a bit foreign.
“Having worked in the industry, I had experienced the need to get tasks done in rather short times, but cooking in a competition where you knew there was a clock counting down was even more stressful. This being said, I did find cooking in the finals slightly easier with regard to time management as we had learned a few lessons from the regional round.”
Kelly Fletcher (19), who comes from Mooi River, Kwa-Zulu Natal, wants to work as a private chef. She says the competition was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Together with her competition partner, Kara Venter (19), they achieved silver medals.
“I’m so grateful I did it. It was definitely not easy as it was extremely humid on the day of the finals so the kitchen was very hot. We had some issues when it came to our dessert but, all in all, it was lots of fun and I would highly recommend anyone to do this competition.
Venter is the only Capetonian among the four. Her aspiration is to work in fine-dining restaurants all over the world.
She says seeing everything come together towards the end of the competition was rewarding.
“There was an encouraging energy from the judges and other contestants that made you excited to be there.”
Bowes and Maree say they were both honoured and humbled when their names were called to receive their gold medals.
“Especially after Chef Adrian had explained that this was the first time in a long time that one had been awarded in a national competition,” says Bowes.
Maree says when the time came for the prizes to be handed out, he knew that there were nine other teams that stood a chance to win the first prize.
“After every team was called out, I was mentally counting down. My heart rate started racing when we got down to the final three teams.”
He says it took a few days after the competition for it to all set in.
“And to realise that what Nicole and I had achieved was rather special. The support that we received from friends, family, and Silwood was incredible.”
