Eat Out DStv Food Network Chef of the Year Margot Janse has just returned from the Audi Chef’s Cup Südtirol in Alta Badia, Italy. We caught up with The Tasting Room chef to find out what’s cooking.

Now in its eight year, the Audi Chef’s Cup Südtirol took place from 20-25 January 2013 in Alta Badia, Northern Italy. Margot Janse was there to represent South African food as part of her Chef of the Year prize, at the Eat Out DStv Food Network Restaurant Awards. (The trip was sponsored by San Pellegrino.)

The brainchild of Italian chef Norbert Niederkofler, the event is an opportunity for over 68 chefs from all over the world to get together and celebrate Italian produce, and cook and showcase their own dishes in a structured program of lunches and dinners, with different chefs preparing the different meals.

“I met Italian chefs from Singapore and Russia; chefs from Denmark, Spain,” says Margot. “Anywhere in the world, a kitchen is a kitchen. Our language is food and it’s great to meet like-minded people." 

The event also includes a hotly-contested chef's slalom race; which Margot missed out on thanks to travel delays. "I can ski, and I can ski well," she assures us.

Margot was one of the 11 chefs selected to cook for the gala dinner, for which she prepared an appetiser of oysters with sour figs (“which I smokkeled in, in my suitcase,” she confesses), oyster vichyssoise and sorghum crumble. “I always like to include a little South Africa.”

And the rest of the food? “Food tradition is so close to their heart in Italy; it’s quite difficult actually to break away from tradition. We got to taste the heritage; sausages, pasta – lots of beautiful pasta!”

The Tasting Room chef also visited Massimo Bottura whilst in Italy, the chef at the 5th Best Restaurant in the World, who spoke at last year’s Eat Out DStv Food Network Conference. In addition to eating at Bottura’s restaurant, Osteria Francescana, Margot visited the Museum of Balsamic. “I got to dip my spoon into the thick, thick liquid; barrels of black gold. And they taste so different: some more red berry; some more chestnutty or nutty.” She also visited a biodynamic farm where parmigiano reggiano is made. “It was unreal; there were mountains of it. It was very, very inspiring.”

Back in SA, it looks like it’s going to be a busy year for the chef of the year. Right now The Tasting Room is changing with the season; in February Margot will be cooking at the Taste of Mumbai; and in April she’ll be in Singapore for the big international food festival, Savour. “And we’ll be closing in June/July for a full kitchen refurb, which is exciting!”

By Katharine Jacobs

Photographs: Daniel Töchterle and MESCHINA