Resort gets a foodie refresh with new chef
The 43-year-old chef has had a love of food since she first drove along gravel roads on her quad bike at 04:00, aged 15, to her weekend job at a Polokwane Hotel.
On meeting the Wild Coast Sun’s executive chef, Georgina Hill, one immediately gets the impression that she rules her kitchen brigade with a firm hand while inviting a sense of collaboration.
“You can’t achieve anything alone – I need my team beside me,” she said of the five senior chefs and 30 commis chefs with whom she manages five outlets at the resort – Chico’s, Calypso, Country Club, Salon Privé and banqueting.
She started at Wild Coast Sun last year, after more than 10 years as executive chef at Golden Valley in Worcester, also a Sun International property,
“I did 20,000 steps on my first day at Wild Coast Sun – this property is just huge, but it’s absolutely beautiful. If you’re stressed, you step outside and take in the ocean. It’s a different world,” she said.
The 43-year-old chef has had a love of food since she first drove along gravel roads on her quad bike at 04:00, aged 15, to her weekend job at a Polokwane Hotel.
“I had expensive tastes so my parents told me to get a job. I started working in the kitchen and soon realised how much fun it was. I never saw myself working in an office,” said Hill.
After school, Hill accepted an offer to work in hospitality on the Isle of Man and later completed a diploma in gourmet cooking and catering while working at a pub. She and her husband Jackie returned to South Africa after the birth of their first child.
“Jackie was working in hospitality but he switched to real estate which gives him more time at home with our three kids while I work late nights and weekends,” she said.
A practising vegetarian, Hill is fully on board with vegan and gluten-free dietary requirements. However, she says she has tried all types of meat and is perfectly comfortable cooking everything from a slow-braised lamb shank to a mutton curry. “It is challenging to cook with ingredients you don’t eat, because how can you cook it if you don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like – so I try everything at least once.”
If she’s cooking for her family, Hill makes a crock pot lasagne and for guests, vegan French toast which she says tastes amazing and you don’t even realise it contains no eggs.
“As a chef, you are never too old to learn – so keep trying new things – sometimes they flop but almost everything can be rescued. Make sure you have fun cooking because you can taste the love in the food,” she said.
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