That Was The Week That Was

Congratulations go this week to one of our youngest South African prize winning chefs. So young in fact that he hasn’t joined the South African Chefs Association but I’m sure that will come one day. David Jeambi Kabamba still hasn’t decided what he’s going to do with the R3000 prize money he received for outcooking 10 other finalists and being crowned the McCain Junior Chef of the Year. As part of the prize, he also won R1000 each for his school and teacher, you see David is still a pupil in Grade seven at Orange Grove Primary School. He won the judges’ votes with his baked wonder, which he calls the “breeding bread”. The recipe includes ingredients such as beef mince, Hawaiian stir fry mix and cake flour. Among the judges were Stephen Billingham, owner of the HTA School of Culinary Art; Sasha Zambetti, editor of Avocado Magazine and Trevor Boyd, executive chef of the Sheraton Pretoria.
Breeding Bread ? I wonder where he came up with that idea ? Maybe instead of trawling the web sites of TV gurus he was attracted to the enterprising work of some culinary web masters closer to his own age ? Consider young kitchen entrepreneurs Isabella Gerasole, 11, and her sister Olivia, 9, who not only enjoy cooking, they’re teaching other kids how to cook through their multimedia venture,    www.spatulatta.com, which features step-by-step Web casts that demonstrate how to prepare such dishes as “Spider Web Soup” and “Spooky Skull Meatloaf” for Halloween; bento box lunches featuring “Sushi Hand Rolls” and “Radical Stir Fry”; and Thanksgiving specialties like “Leek and Potato Tart,” “Phyllo Flowers” and “Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes.” The girls’ culinary venture earned them a 2006 James Beard Foundation award. Now Scholastic has published a print version of their work, The Spatulatta Cookbook.
Finally in the UK this week more young chefs were taking part in a competition – they were only youngsters and they were only cooking with minced meat but celeb chef James Martin took time out of his very busy schedule to offer some words of encouragement. Aspiring chefs Bradley Davis, 14, Jessica Wilson, 12, Callum Kinnaird, 15, and Simon Stacey, 15, all went along to contest the final of the Quality Standard Beef Mince Young Chef Challenge. Jessica created a Cheeky Chinese Parcels with beef, garlic and onion all wrapped in a cabbage leaf with noodles She said: “It was very hot cooking in the kitchen but James Martin was nice. He helped me by fetching some saucepans. I love cooking.” Callum said: “I made a Nu Nu Naan Burger but I couldn’t have done it without Simon who did all my chopping. James Martin helped us too and he as having a laugh with us.”  If we are to attract more young chefs into the industry I reckon James Martin is the sort of role model we need rather than His Gordoness.