Meet Unilever's Chef of the Year

We chat to the winner, Germaine Esau from Delaire Graff Estate in the Cape, about his top summer ingredients and more

Which were your winning dishes? They included tuna tartare and seared tuna served with pickled mushroom, lemon pomegranate, crispy ham and carrot; and lamb loin, sautéed kidneys and broccoli sprouts with butternut and a camembert rice crème. Dessert was olive oil parfait, kiwi sauce and compressed nectarine with meringue.

What is your dish of the season? I'm a big sucker for cheese so it would have to be goat's cheese mousse with citrus purée, candied pecans and compressed nectarines.

Can we try this at home? The dish might be difficult to replicate at home, but the flavours work, so a log of goat's cheese drenched in honey and nuts and slices of nectarine would be just as good.

What are your hero ingredients for summer? Stone fruit, coriander, and Sassi green-listed fish. These ingredients are always considered smaller players in a dish, but prepared correctly they can be the stars.

What do you think of the diet-based menus? Like most things, that too shall pass; nothing can replace good, honest, delicious food. Ignore fashion statements. Balanced diet has worked for centuries.

What does it mean to you to be named Chef of the Year? Recognition for the hard work over the past few years. It is going to serve as a platform to get my name out there. I fall in love with my craft more and more every day.

What gave you the edge? I had a few months of heavy practice and training before I did the Unilever competition because I entered (and won) the regional and national competition of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs and ended up representing South Africa in the international competition that was held in Durban in September.

Who is your mentor? Without a doubt Neil Jewell of Bread & Wine. He taught me how to work hard, be humble and how to create dishes that have balance but still capture the flavour of each ingredient; more recently Christiaan Campbell.

What does padkos mean to you? From childhood holidays, padkos was meat balls, sandwiches and biltong. Add dried fruit, samoosas, hertzoggies, koeksisters and a flask of coffee for a typical South African road trip.