By the time this competition hap-pened, the Chefs Association was like a well-oiled wheel –seeing as this was our fourth competition this year. We kicked off with an under 25 competi-tion in January, followed by the Ulti-mate Establishment Challenge in March, then the international Semi Final for the Global Chefs Challenge in May, and the prestigious Chef of the Year (CoY) competition beginning of July.

Windhoek Afrikaans Privaatskool (WAP), kindly gave us their kitchen –again and we are very grateful for this gesture. I think they were very happy when their own Chantel Kesslau walked away with the crown for the best School Chef for 2013 – but more about that later! At one stage we decided that we would be happy with about 15 entries

seeing as we’ve had so many things on our calendar for 2013, but the en-tries kept on coming and in the end we had to show chefs away. It was our largest competition ever with 66 contestants of who 44 school chefs, 11 juniors and 11 seniors. The school chefs could take part as individuals or as a team of 2. The teams got a time penalty of 30 minutes, because they had more hands per team. We saw quite a couple of new faces compet-ing. Promising that in future the hospi-tality industry shall get more and more well trained chefs.

All chefs had to prepare a three-course meal for 6 guests. The schools had to do a French onion soup followed by an Oryx Schnitzel with their own choice of sauce, braised red cabbage and Spätzle. For dessert they had to make Tira-misu. The juniors did a Cream of To-

Hot in this Issue:

NCA Chef of the Year Why do Judges judge Strategic Planning Meeting Boerewors Competition

Davids Unilever Chef of the Year Starter

Main course

Desert

The NCA Chef of the Year Competition 2013

Sands, Ellies Electronics, Capricorn Sweets, Maxes Office Machines, Caterplus, Gathemann Restaurant, Pupkewitz Catering, Namibia Dairies, Birds Mansions Keetmanshoop, Tok-Tokkie Trails, Ababis Guest Farm, Eagles Rock Business Lodge, Mac-millan Publishers, Lyon des Sables,

This competition was not at all possi-ble without the generosity of all our sponsors and we would like to thank each and every one of them for their continuous support. Thank you to Seapride, Meatco, Checkers, Maerua Super-Spar, Furn-mart, Karnic Distributors, Sentratek, Windhoek Country Club, Kalahari

Contact us: Web: www.namibianchefs.com / Face book: Namibian Chefs Association Email: secretariat@namibianchefs.com / Secretariat Tel.: 061-253542 / Chair Handy: 081-1240623

NAMIBIA CHEFS ASSOCIATION Edition 2013-05

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Thank You to the Sponsors!

Member of: World Association of Chefs Societies

Pics of the Month

mato soup followed by Loin of lamb served with glazed carrots and Potato Boulanger and ended off with Choco-late brownies. The seniors got only the key ingredients and had to do their own menu. For a starter they got Namibian brown mushrooms, for the main a chicken and for dessert they had to do something with apple. We had three top chefs from South Africa judging the competition and sharing their knowledge with the local chefs and we cannot thank Martin Ko-bald, Richard Pearce and David Higgs enough.

Roots Importers, Marinda Fouche, Hartlief, Agricon Mushrooms, Afrox, Gondwana Collection, Sea Side Hotel and Spa, Denu Distributors, T&C Nestle, MacAdams, Alex MacDonald, Fruit and Veg City, Frontline Catering Hire, Greenspot, Waltons, Citi Pro-duce, Hotline Catering Supplies, Jaylo, Komnik&Franck, TV Worx,

Schools Teams 1st: Letitia Classens & Gerhardus Louw, Moria School, Outjo 2nd: Melanie Blaauw &

Brandon Plaatjies Welwitschia School 3rd: Charne and Anri from Elnatan

Schools Individuals 1st: Chantel Kesslau, WAP 2nd: Melany Potgieter, Windhoek High School

3rd: Shannon Vollschenk, Dolphin High School

Junior Chefs 1st: Annelise van der Merwe, Flaunt Daytime Bistro

2nd: Tomea Anwill Dick, Diaz Coffee Shop 3rd: Stallin Steenkamp, Lyon des Sa-bles

Senior Chefs 1st: David Thomas, Lyon des Sables 2nd: Tersia Mettler, Ka-lahari Sands

3rd: Elias Abel –private

The proud winners:

The School teams

Chantel Annelise &

Tomeao

David

The proud winners of this competition were

tition that is taking place on the 4th of September at the ChefInfo Congress in Johannesburg. Our team members are David Thomas –Team Captain, Tommy Dick from Diaz Coffee Shop in Luederitz, Stallin Steenkamp from Lyon des Sables in Walvis Bay and for the pastries our Natasha Hamman, currently at the FBI school in Johan-nesburg. I shall be going down to at-tend the ChefInfo Congress as well as the SACA AGM – and to take care of the boys in the big, bad city. These chefs have never taken part in an international competition and Chef David will be giving them some point-ers in the week before the competi-tion. It is of course a wonderful op-portunity for these youngsters to widen their horizons and to see what the rest of Africa is up to in the culi-nary world.

I think this has been the most exciting year up to now for me in the Namibian Chefs Association. We are just so active and the best is yet to come. I always say our main objective should be to give back to our members/chefs. We paid the airline ticket for Chef David Thomas to go and partake in the Unilever Chefs of the Year Com-petition regional round in Cape Town on the 2nd of August. To qualify he had to plan a menu using Unilever products, cook the menu and send in pictures of his food. It was the first time that a Namibian chef got chosen to take part and David made us very proud. He made it into the finals and shall be going down to Durban on the 12th of September 2013. Congratula-tions Chef. We are very proud of you. Namibia is also going to take part in the u/25 African Culinary Cup compe-

NAMIBIA CHEFS ASSOCIATION Edition 2013-0 5 page 2

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From the iPad of our President

At the Gala Evening on the last day of the competition the following chefs were auctioned off to cook for the highest bidders at a private event: Rhona Strauss, N/a'an ku sê Abbey Rowley du Toit, private chef David Thomas, Lyon des Sables David Higgs, Saxon Boutique Hotel Garth Shnier, Sun International Tow-ers Richard Pearce, Totally Kosher Sanet Prinsloo, our one and only NCA President The total income for the NCA from the auction: N$81,000.00

I am happy that the Namibian Chefs Association has the resources to plough back into the lives of our young chefs who want to learn and experience something more. May I also just thank Tommy and Stallin’s employers for their support and com-mitment to support these youngsters on their career path. Looking forward to coming back with more to tell. Hopefully we shall be seeing you at the Hart van Windhoek Festival where we will be choosing the best Checkers Champion boerewors for 2013. Look out for the bunch in red chefs jack-ets, come and say hallo and taste some wors! Keep cooking Sanet

Chefs Auction

We have mentioned and thanked the judges of all the competitions the NCA had staged to date, but the question arises: why do they do that—the travel, being out of their restaurant or business, away from home, having to eat all that food—not always a pleas-ure—and so on? Following email from Markus Iten, chairman of the Egyptian Chefs Asso-ciation, also very much involved in chef training in his country, and one of the international judges at the WACS Semi Finals in May, describes what it is all about for them. Dear Wolfgang, A few lines will not do, but I will try. Remembering that in your part of the world the meaning of "around the cor-ner" could mean 100km down the road to get a 6 pack, one way. Most of organising committees require

a pad on the shoulder, a kiss for the girls (only, where allowed) and lots of praises for the termination, hard work, willingness, etc. to make a difference for the competitors, esteemed asso-ciation and the culinary profession at large. The score the Namibian Chefs Association deserves rightly is a sim-ple "Bulls Eye, Jack-pot" or better said “great”. As you all know I have had the oppor-tunity living in this part of the world many years ago and this visit, al-though very short, had been an en-richment in all means. I got to know and confirmed similarities between our country's in the chefs education drive, the enormous spaces to cover to get everyone around the same ta-ble. A few words about the competition. I am confident that the best senior, jun-ior and pastry chefs representing the

www.namibianchefs.com

The upgraded NCA website is up and running. Find everything you want to know in the following pages of the site: Keep Cooking What’s Cooking Who’s Cooking Time 4 Cooking Yummy Cooking Links Cooking We are still busy with getting content on these pages. So please send us your stores, recipes, pictures etc.

Why do the Judges judge?

Lodge just outside of Windhoek. At this meeting we want to set the goals to bring the Association forward and to strengthen the international position of the Namibian Chefs Asso-ciation. Members that would like to get a little bit more involved in their NCA, but also those who can support us with their valuable input are very much welcome to participate. How about taking the opportunity for a fam-ily outing on Saturday only – the Chefs of the family can then partici-pate in the meeting whilst the rest of

As you have read in the Presidents report the NCA is moving fast and furi-ous. In this past year many things were still done on an ad hoc basis, putting a lot of strain on the members of the executive committee and the secretariat, as well as on our support-ers and sponsors who had to be con-tacted for their generous support for each of our many events. We have thus decided to, on Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th of Oc-tober, hold the first strategic planning meeting at the Eagles Rock Leisure

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Strategic Planning Meeting October 2013

Middle East and Africa Continent have showcased the capabilities and awarded the great challenge to get ready for the finals in Norway next year. To all the other participants, your time will come to go the top by hard work and total dedication to our gallant white jacket profession. What bothers me, just to say, is that the Seniors looked rather young, the juniors hardly out of school, old mans talk. It has been a honour spending some time in your great country, the space, air, sun, air plain noise after 6am (Markus stayed at the Safari Hotel with Eros Airport right in front of his window). Desire to come back? Any time. With best regards from the land of the Pharaohs, Markus

the family enjoys the beautiful Eagles Rock Leisure Lodge. Interested? Then please send an email to

secretariat@namibianchefs.com to reach us not later than Friday the 13th of September. No time – but you have some input to give? Then please also send us an email by Friday the 11th of October. Any suggestions, advice as well as constructive criticism will be highly appreciated!

This year we had whooping 96 entries for the competition. At the end 60 en-tries were selected with their recipes correlating with the rules and regula-tions for a true boerewors. At the Biltong fees on Saturday 6th of July 2013 these 60 competitors had to present their product as raw wors and later as a braaid wors. Ingredients, consistence, casing, col-our and taste of the raw version had to be judged first. The cooked boere-wors were then judged on the follow-ing features: appetizing colour, does it shrink, is the casing still intact, how is

the texture, is it still crumbly, not too much water, but still juicy. Taste wise the wors should have a balanced taste. No spice should overpower an-other and the spices should compli-ment each other. Not any easy task to full fill all the re-quirements. But the participants from all corners of the country did very well and it was not easy to select the 10 finalists. The final round will be on August 31st at the Heart of Windhoek Festival.

Events Calendar

30 & 31 August 2013 Finals of the CHAMPION BOEREWORS COMPETITION 2013 At the Huisgenoot Heart of Windhoek Festival 3 September 2013 AGM of the South African

Chefs Association SACA NCA President Sanet Prinsloo will participate 3 & 4 September 2013 African Culinary Cup A team of NCA Junior Chefs will participate in this event 12 September 2013 Unilever Chef of the Year NCA Chef of the Year David Thomas has qualified himself to participate 18 & 19 October 2013 NCA Strategic Planning Meet-

ing At the Eagles Rock Leisure Lodge, members welcome

Checkers Boerewors competition 2013

when they whirled around in the kitchen they performed just like the real ones – real chefs. And not just there. They practiced for weeks at home – their poor ma’s, pa’s, broers en sussies – having to go through Spaetzle in all forms, kinds, varia-tions, flavours and tastes for weeks! So I could not do anything else but ask them for an apology. I just hope they heard me. Yet it did not matter whether it was one of the 44, or one of the 11 each senior or junior chefs, the adrenalin in the air even pumped me up. And this highly explosive atmosphere showed what competitions are about – keep-ing your cool under pressure. Well, it lies in the nature of competi-tions that, even though they say ‘may the best one win’, it is a mix of skills,

Das Kitchen Gogga talks: always competing Wow – it took me a whole month to recover! But now it’s over – the time of all these competitions – at least here and for this year. And you should have seen this last one – the Chef of the Year they called it. Sixty six chefs, 4 days with two and three session per day. Yet the best of it was that there were 44 school chefs. School chefs? Those who run the school kitchen? No, no way, it was 44 kids from schools, some from as far away as Stampriet – ja – that’s that little dorpie somewhere in the Kalahari. Now when I heard them call them chefs – I thought of what I had written some issues ago – everybody that cooks is called a chef. But jeslaik –

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Das Kitchen Gogga talks: always competing

The finalists are: Bill Boltman Katrina Kaingos Ella Lamprecht Pattie Labuschagne Kobus Malan Martinus Ndengu Heila van Vuuren Anton Petrus Fanna du Rand Thinus Smit

experience, keeping your cool, form of the day and ... luck. That is what makes the winner and luckily its not always the same due to that mix. And another thing was great – the peeping! Since the NCA gals mixed all categories of competitors in each session you could see the peeping to learn how the other chefs tackle this or that. That’s the nice thing about competitions – you always learn something new from a colleague.’ So ... when will you participate in one! Yours truly - Das Kitchen Gogga