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The Unilever Chef of the Year Team of Four category was won by Team Food Design from Johannesburg. Led by Chef Jodi-Ann Pearton, who has now won all four categories of the Unilever Food Solutions Chef of the Year, and team members Kylie Debbo, Megin Miekle and Musa Ndlovu which took place in sunny Durban last Friday 17th September.

Chef Jodi-Ann plating up her starter course

Jodi-Ann & her life sized winning cheque!

On Thursday the 1st September, The Food Network in association with DSTV held the launch event of their ever popular show, Chopped SA at the Food Studio inside Pick 'n Pay on William Nicol. The launch commenced with a brilliant and comical introduction from Nick Thorogood, MD at The Food Network which was followed by a tasty spread of boosting breakfast. The show commenced and was staged in front of a live audience of select VIP guests and the first Chopped contestants consisting of our very own Chef Jodi-Ann Pearton, competitions director of the South African Chefs Association, Kevin Miller a Lindt chocolatier, Abubaker Bagaria the head chef at Bistro on Boulevard and Jelele Mokhine sous chef at the Park Inn Sandton.

Mystery baskets containing four essential, yet twisted ingredients were used for the rounds of starter, main and dessert with one contestant who gets "chopped" from each course. The audience could view all of the action from inside the kitchen and on TV screens conveniently arranged around the Food Studio as the contestants unpacked their first mystery basket. The contestants were given 15 minutes to create a starter using core ingredients of black pudding sausage, chick peas, water chestnuts and edible flowers. Miller was the first contestant to get chopped while the remaining contestants were left with 25 minutes to create a main course utilizing the staple ingredients of skate wing, pearl barley, mango atchaar and sushi noori. Mokhine was second to get chopped, with the only Jodi-Ann and Abubker left to battle it out in the last remaining round of dessert. The last of the mystery ingredients consisting of agar agar, kumquats, marshmallows and an ostrich egg as ingredients. It was head to head all the way to the end of the interactive launch, with Chef Jodi-Ann taking away the coveted title, first winner in South Africa of Chopped.

Nick Thorogood handed each contestant a life-sized cheque of R25 000 for the charity of their choice. Jodi-Ann has nominated Cresset House, a community with residential and work facilities for 60 adults with intellectual disabilities, who are food focused on growing their own produce and preparing even the very basics such as bread from scratch.



	Sunday Times in association with Foodcorp, is on its yearly search for South Africa's up and coming exceptional kitchen talent. Now in its fifth year, the Sunday Times Food Awards aims to celebrate and reward the country's top chefs by offering the biggest prize money in the history of all chef competitions in South Africa. The 2011 competition continues with the same format introduced in 2010, Sunday Times Chef of the Year, Sunday Times Young Chef of the Year, the Sunday Times Chef School Challenge and the Sunday Times Stalwart of the Kitchen. The entrants are required to submit a menu reflecting modern South African cuisine, using specified ingredients. Chef Jodi-Ann has joined the accomplished competition judges panel this year and we wait with anticipation for the finalists to be announced. It's sure to be one of the highlights in the South African food calendar! For more information click here.



	After being an active member of the South African Chef's Association since 2003, Chef Jodi-Ann is incredibly proud and grateful to have recently been voted as a director of the association. "This position comes with much responsibility to me as I feel there is a grand chance of making a difference to an industry that needs to needs it most. I am very excited to be part of such a dynamic board and to begin tapping into some diverse networks. Hopefully we will be able to use our resource banks together with the hope of achieving great things."