Sunday Times Food Awards winners announced

The Food Awards, in association with Foodcorp, is made up of three competitions, with all three winners coming from Cape Town. Henrico Grobbelaar of Lady Phillips restaurant now holds the title of 2009 Sunday Times Chef of the Year, Leon Jones of the Table Bay Hotel was Young Chef of the Year and Silwood School of Cookery won the Chef School Challenge.

“The awards were designed to give something back to the South African culinary community, to recognise and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation of South Africa's top chefs, and the aspiring culinary stars of tomorrow,” said Avusa's project manager for the awards, Jacqui Gunn.

Chef of the Year

The finalists who competed for Chef of the Year were, Henrico Grobbelaar, executive chef at the Lady Philips Restaurant in Cape Town, Joseph Govender, sous chef at the Cape's Table Bay Hotel, Jodi-Anne Pearton, owner of The Food Design Agency in Johannesburg and Tammy Henton, head chef at Arnold Tanzer's Food on the Move, also based in Johannesburg.

All finalists that were shortlisted were chosen to compete due to their impeccably presented menus and unique reflections of the African theme in each of their recipes. These first-class menus then had to be brought to life on the day.

Chef School Challenge

On 2 September, the Chef School Challenge took place between the two finalist schools, Cape Town's Silwood School of Cookery and 1000 Hills Chef School, based 40km outside of Durban.

Young Chef of the Year

Subsequently, the Young Chef of the Year cook-off went underway between its four finalists. They were Leon Jones, a commis (entry level) chef at the Table Bay Hotel, Gina Rebok, a commis chef at the Cape Grace Hotel in Cape Town, Ryan Howie, another commis chef from the Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg and Reiner May, a Chef de Partie from Cape Town.

“Creation of new talent is critical for the sustainability of the culinary industry in South Africa. These awards serve as a platform that creates excitement, encouraging young talent to participate in the industry. In addition, the junior chef and schools challenge provides a great platform for young culinary creatives to showcase their unique capabilities and ideas,” added Media Marketing GM, Susan Russell.

Chef of the Year

The following day, the Chef of the Year cook-offs culminated at a cocktail party awards ceremony.

This year's Chef of the Year received R50 000 plus a Weber Q300 valued at R5999, the Young Chef of the Year, R20 000 plus a Weber Q300 valued at R4999 and winners of the Chef School Challenge took home R5000 and a Weber Smokey Joe valued at R749 per team member and R5000 was awarded to the winning school.