Cooks that came tops in the Gautrain Taste Experience competition
Delectable dishes made with a dash of speed is what 10 finalists whipped up in the Sunday Times Goodlife Gautrain Taste Experience competition cook off. Here's which recipe took the cake
We recently asked Sunday Times readers to swap those wasted hours stuck in traffic for a quick commute on the Gautrain, spend the time they saved experimenting in the kitchen and send us their tastiest speedy recipe. There were a mountain of entries!
Sunday Times food editor Hilary Biller went through them and the final 15 recipes were put to the test by chefs at HTA Chefs School in Joburg, after which they were narrowed down to the top 10.
To win one of the grand prizes, the 10 finalists then had to compete in an action-packed cook off and recreate their recipe for a host of celebrity judges at the Discovery Healthy Food Studio in Sandton.
Here's what went down on the day:Celebrity chef Benny Masekwameng was there as chief judge. Luckily there were no major disasters nor cut fingers, just a noisy kitchen filled with a wonderful aromas and stressed cooks cooking under the watchful eye of judges Masekwameng, Biller, Chef David Williams from the Radisson Blu Gautrain Hotel, Tshepo Kgobe, senior executive from the Gautrain Management Agency and Prue Leith chef Yvette Harmse, and the 60 readers who had been invited to attend.The judges sampled their way through the top 10 dishes which included an ostrich pie featuring babotie flavours, a spicy chicken bunny, a biltong tart, "Gautuna" quiche, chicken pancakes, brinjal curry, clubhouse chicken favourite, two boerewors dishes and an unusual morogo, maas and chakalaka bake.The unanimous winning dish was Sam Rolland's ostrich pie. Rolland is a seasoned Gautrain commuter who dreamt up his idea on the train to work.
It was a close call, with Bev Greenhill's morogo chakalaka bake second and Nelson Naidoo's brinjal curry spicing up the judges' taste buds to take third place.
The winner received R7,000 and a R1,000 Gautrain voucher, and the runners up R2,000 and R1,000 respectively, and Gautrain vouchers.
• To receive the three winning recipes e-mail food@sundaytimes.co.za..
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