Capetonian Annemarie Robertson found faith in herself and became the first South African to win the title of Top Chef last night when she took on fellow cheftestant Ayabonga Gope on the season finale.
Here's a recap of the action by the show:
Episode 13
Annemarie, who quickly stood out as a firm favourite to win with her perfectionist ways, not only beat 13 other established chefs to the coveted title, she has also walked away with R100 000 in prize money.
The reality cooking series, which started in July, saw chefs from across South Africa compete in various culinary challenges to be whittled down to just two finalists.
In tonight's finale Annemarie, Executive Chef at Burrata, Bocca & Open Door
, and Ayabonga Gope, from The Deck House in Cape Town, were given four hours to produce the best four course meal of their lives.
In an interesting twist, the previously eliminated cheftestants also made an appearance in the kitchen and the two finalists had to select three sous chefs each from their fellow former competitors.
Annemarie chose to cook alongside Devin Hogan, Martine Christian and Linda Mazibuko, while Aya had Sachin Gosai, Phillip Nel and Hezron Louw cooking in his corner.
Annemarie and Ayabonga’s very distinct leadership styles in the kitchen were interesting to watch. Ayabonga wasn’t happy about having to work in a team from the get-go, but built his menu up from his protein choice and then gave team mates room to make dishes, which he would then taste and axe if they didn’t meet his standards.
Annemarie meanwhile had her team working for her; after writing down the menu and any recipes she delegated tasks to her team members.
Both chefs whipped up fascinating menus. Ayabonga’s menu included: three way sous-vide quail followed by grilled pork served with avo purée, pickled onion and cauliflower and toasted tacos. His main course was beef bourguignon with dauphinoise potatoes and dessert was shortbread mille-feuille with cherry ice cream.
Annemarie’s menu included: spinach and artichoke tortellini followed by cured norwegian salmon with avocado and basil puree, then a main course of sous-vide lamb rack with garlic puree, fried gnocchi, chilli tomato relish and bone marrow jus. Her dessert was a blue cheese mousse with spiced walnuts, sherry jelly, puffed wild rice and chives.
One of South Africa's most celebrated chefs and the owner of award-winning restaurant The Test Kitchen in Cape Town, Luke Dale-Roberts joined the judges at the final Judge’s Table
. He said it was great to see the chefs in action and they both did well and presented some really good food.
Reflecting on Ayabonga’s journey with the numerous highs and lows, the judges commended him for his good attitude and for being a sponge keen to soak up all the feedback he received in each episode.
Annemarie was dubbed the most consistent cheftestant, who despite being very organised sometimes lacked faith in her own skills.
Ultimately it was Annemarie’s menu that won the judges over. Annemarie who was overwhelmed by her win said she never expected to scoop the prestigious title. Annemarie said, “I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for my boss who encouraged me to enter and for my husband and parents who got me where I am.”