Young Honingklip baker crowned the winner!

The winners in the RCL FOODS Young Chef and the inaugural Young Baker competitions were announced on 13 October following gruelling finals that tested a wide range of their cooking and baking skills at the RCL FOODS kitchens in Durban, with each taking home their share of the total R110 000 cash prize.

The first-ever RCL FOODS Young Baker winner is Simthandile Nomandla from Honingklip, Muldersdrift. The youngster is from the FBI Chef School & Patisserie Academy in Gauteng who took home the top prize of R20 000 against the odds she faced.

Chef Brad Kavanagh, Head Chef of RCL FOODS, explained, “Simthandile missed her flight from Joburg that morning, but despite her late start, her passion and determination saw her not only catch up but win the top RCL FOODS Young Bakers Challenge prize. We’re very proud of her excellent baking skills, as well as her problem-solving ability in the face of an extremely stressful situation.”

The SA Chefs and SA Bakers Associations ran the competition, with Chef Adrian Vigus Brown, SA Chefs’ Competition Director, as the overall head judge. At the prize-giving ceremony at Coastlands Umhlanga Hotel & Convention Centre, Chef Adrian 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.”

Chef Brad thanked all the contributors to the competitions, and particularly the SA Chefs-approved expert judges, for going the extra mile to ensure the participants were given feedback on their performance, in line with RCL FOODS’ commitment to nurturing, upskilling and investing in young chefs and bakers.

“Every entrant was scored professionally throughout the stages of the competitions, and the judges’ evaluations were made available to the entrants to enable them to assess their performance and boost their skills to be the best chefs and bakers they can be.”

For the finals, Young Chef competitors submitted recipes for a restaurant main course and an innovation dessert course before the competition, which they then cooked in the finals, with a mystery basket starter, and Young Baker competitors submitted recipes for two types of breads and two types of baked confectionary, which they baked, along with a mystery basket element of six cupcakes and a flavoured buttercream.