It’s South Africa’s best food competition for youngsters, and it’s back – bigger and better than before. Taste Bud Battle seeks to find the country’s best young chefs, with the winner crowned after a competitive cook-off which will be held in Johannesburg in October.
Entries are now open in a number of categories with regional heats taking place around the country.
Last year’s winners were five-year-old Yusri Zunaid Noorbhai (Taste Bud Battle Mini Chef of the Year), Gabriella Shalekoff (aged 11, Taste Bud Battle Junior Chef of the Year) and 16-year-old Trezar Bhana (Taste Bud Battle Senior Chef of the Year and overall champion).
“To say we were overwhelmed with last year’s response to the inaugural competition would be an understatement. This year we will be hosting cook-offs in Cape Town, Durban, George, Johannesburg and Pretoria to uncover South Africa’s best young chefs. There are various categories for youngsters aged from four to 19 and we are expecting hundreds of young chefs to enter,” says organiser Donna Verrydt.
Verrydt explains why getting children into the kitchen is so important: “It provides practical experience with many essential skills, such as reading and following directions. Research has shown that getting involved in cooking helps children to develop fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and even early concepts of maths and science.”
According to an article in The New York Times, children who cook become children who taste and who develop a more open-minded approach to food. Cooking is a way to talk about health and about healthy ingredients. It also brings cooks of all ages closer together.
Taste Bud Battle’s theme for 2020 is Fruity Fun.
“The creative options are endless. You can bake with fruit, you can cook a savoury dish using fruit, you can even make a dish that just resembles a fruit (it doesn’t have to contain fruit but can look like a fruit). Contestants’ dishes can focus on just one fruit or could feature a medley of fruits. Fruit can be the actual dish, the accompaniment or the sauce. And remember, some produce that you may think of as a vegetable, may actually be a fruit,” Verrydt added.
There are four age categories this year: pre-primary (four and five-year-olds); junior primary (aged six to nine); primary (10 to 13) and high school (14 to 19).
Contestants can enter on the Taste Bud Battle website www.tastebudbattle.co.za. Entries close on May 31.
Semi-finalists will be announced on June 11, with regional cook-offs taking place on July 11 in Johannesburg; July 18 in Pretoria; July 25 in Durban; August 1 in Cape Town and August 15 in George. Finalists will be announced on August 31 and flown up to Johannesburg for the ultimate Taste Bud Battle where category winners will be chosen and the overall grand champion will walk away with some amazing prizes.
