Pretoria South Africa

August 2019

The continental semi final of the Worldchefs Global Chefs challenge took place in conjunction with INFOCHEF 2019 in Times Square Pretoria under the organization of the South African Chefs Association (SACA).

The event was held to choose 3 candidates to compete in Russian St Petersburg in July 2020 at the bi annual Congress of Worldchefs to represent the Africa and Middle East continental area of Worldchefs. The continental director Andy Cuthbert said” the organization and location of the competition was excellent and SACA did an outstanding job in organizing the event flawlessly and added President James Khoza and competition organizer Elsu Gericke are to be congratulated for an outstanding competition”.

4 countries were representing the region, Egypt, Qatar, The United Arab Emirates and South Africa, across the three parts of the competition being Global chefs challenge for senior chefs the Hans Bueschkens Young chef Challenge and the Global Pastry Chefs Challenge.

The teams were made up of chefs from various hotels and restaurants from each country representing their national Chefs association:

Qatar

Global chefs: Kommalage Asanka Sanjeewa

Pastry chef Alkesh Bhandari

Hans Bueschkens Young Chef Oussama ben Hassen

United Arab Emirates

Global chefs: Mario Coelho

Hans Bueschkens Young Chef: Leon Rozario

Egypt

Pastry chef Sedhom Hamed

Hans Bueschkens Young chef Kareem Atef

South Africa

Global Chef Dion Vengatass

Pastry Chef Arno Ralph

Hans Bueschkens Young Chef Armin Maritz

All teams did an outstanding job and made judging extremely hard and the end result being very close with the winner and second place being .4 of a point between them. This competition was held at the highest levels and the winners will now go through to the final to compete against the best in the world.

The results as follows

Global Chef

Winner South Africa chefs Dion Vengatass and

1^st runner up United Arab Emirates Chefs Mario Coelho and Tharindu Lakshan

2^nd runner up Qatar Kommalage Asanka Sanjeewa and El Mehdi Merdi

Global Pastry Chef

Winner South Africa: Chef Arno Ralph

1^st runner up Egypt chef Sedhom Hamed

2^nd runner up Qatar Alkesh Bhandari

Hans Bueschkens Young Chef Winner

South Africa Chefs Armin Maritz

1^st Egypt runner up Kareem Atef

2^nd United Arab Emirates Chef Leon Rozario

Team South Africa along with the Wildcard competitor from the UAE in pastry will now represent the region at the Final in July 2020 in St Petersburg.

The judges of the competition came from each country and South Africa led by Head judge and seasoned competitor and international judge Garth Schnier, Hossam Soliman President Egypt Chefs Association, Andy Cuthbert UAE, Sanet Prinsloo from Namibia past President, Nadine Demmier South Africa, and Stuart McClarty, and we thank the judges for their excellent work.

The competition would not have been possible without the support of all the sponsors whom we thank for their support, Mac Brothers for the kitchens, Sigma for jackets, Dlimah Tea, Van Drie, Avanti,Turn and Slice, Sun International, La Marina, Sir Fruit, Roll Kem, to name a few.

The competitors and competition was supported by various culinary schools as well and grateful thanks goes to Capsicum, Chef MLK School of cooking, Prue Leith, and HTA for sporting with their great students and logistics.

Cuthbert added, we congratulate all competitors and look forward to seeing Team South Africa and the UAE bring home the trophies in July 2020.