Professional chefs from Boardwalk in Gqeberha made dreams come true for 16 young wannabe chefs by permitting them to be part of a professional kitchen in action.
After finishing school for the day, the children, aged eight to 12, arrived to witness the manic activity of chefs working at speed to faultlessly deliver orders for diners in Boardwalk’s two restaurants.
Lunch served and cleaning up done, it was time to put the youngsters through their paces in a cook-off. With guidance from the chefs the children created dishes using chicken, sausage and brisket before serving their culinary masterpieces to invited guests.
Boardwalk Executive Chef Willie Mcotoyi says, “It was International Chef’s Day on 20 October and we didn’t have anything planned so we missed the actual event, but one of the challenges was for chefs to share their skills which got us all thinking. We all got our love of cooking from watching a family member in the kitchen so we asked, what if we get a few children to spend time in the kitchen cooking with us, could we be an inspiration for them to become chefs?”
The idea began in the Boardwalk kitchen, but it took a team to make the day happen. Chef Willie appealed to local media to assist with finding the youngsters, and to local food businesses to assist them. Bidfood provided essential utensils and dried goods for the kids, MC Brothers supplied fresh fruit and vegetables, and Cuyler Butchery stepped forward with premium meats. NPO Yokhuselo Haven for abused women and children, who regularly works with Boardwalk, offered to supply aprons for the youngsters.
“These are all people we interact with daily in our professional capacity, but they were all eager to be part of the initiative so we stopped thinking about it, and together we made it happen.”
“Today we are qualified chefs, but we enjoy sharing our skills with others. We hope we inspired young chefs of the future to love being in a kitchen, to love cooking, to be excited about exploring flavours and inventing new dishes as we still are. We hope this first step takes them on a lifelong culinary journey.”
