By now, you might have read about the exciting action around the 2019/2020 S.Pellegrino Young Chef awards. In the nail-biting day-long regional finals, which took place on 14 October, we saw ten semi-finalists compete to take the title of Best Young Chef in Africa and the Middle East. After a gruelling cook-off, the chef that came out on top was none other than chef Paul Thinus Prinsloo of The Restaurant at Waterkloof.

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A massive congratulations to SA's very own Chef @paulthinus of @waterkloofwines who has just secured his spot as the top young chef in Africa & Middle East and will be competing in the 2020 @sanpellegrino_official Young Chef competition! ???? #soproud #spyoungchef

A post shared by Eat Out (@eatoutguide) on Oct 14, 2019 at 12:20pm PDT

Chef Paul, who was guided and mentored by head chef of SA’s number one restaurant, Gregory Czarnecki, created a dish titled Bouillabaisse 2.0. It was with this creation that wowed the panel of jurors. The plate was skilfully and beautifully executed complete with langoustine, a scallop marshmallow, Mauritian seabass, and pommes Anna. This is the signature dish that he will recreate at the Grand Finale in Milan in June next year, when he competes against the world’s best young chefs for the title of S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2020.

In addition to this title, there are now three other awards, each recognising different personal beliefs of the participants: the Acqua Panna Award for Connection in Gastronomy was awarded to chef Elissa About Tasse from Beirut; the S.Pellegrino Award for Social Responsibility was awarded to chef Callan Austin of Le Coin Français; and, finally, the Food for Thought Award, which is voted for by the online community of Fine Dining Lovers, was awarded to Marcus Gericke of Qunu at the Saxon Hotel.