The idea for the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Cookbook simmered into being as a way to keep the young chefs connected, engaged and visible when the Grand Finale, that was set to take place last year, was postponed due to the pandemic.
Their challenge was to create a personal recipe made from simple local ingredients that home cooks could replicate in a regular kitchen.
This has resulted in a fascinating read. The cookbook provides plenty of inspiration and encouragement to try new techniques. Each recipe is presented in an easy-to-follow format with great tips and step-by-step photos illustrating the whole process.
The four finalists in the Africa & Middle East region share the stories behind their recipes as well as some extra tips.
Sunday Roast
Chef Paul Prinsloo, the 2019 S.Pellegrino Young Chef winner for the Africa & Middle East region. His cookbook recipe is a homely but creative take on the traditional Sunday roasts he grew up with. He hangs a rack of lamb in a chimney to slow cook and absorb the smoke flavour, confits potatoes and purees vegetables for a beautiful, but very much simplified version of his usual cooking style. “The challenge was to cook it in a home kitchen that didn’t have all the tools I’m used to at work. Without a thermomix, I had to try and get the texture of the puree using a home blender, which was both fun and a challenge.” If you don’t have a suitable chimney he recommends cooking the lamb in a Weber or a Big Green Egg on a low heat to get the smoky flavour. Failing those, he advises caramelising the fat in a pan briefly before cooking very slowly in an oven at 100°C until tender. Paul leaves the choice of spice rub up to you, but he loves using a Moroccan ras el hanout spice blend which he says goes perfectly with the lamb.
Burst of Beirut
Chef Elissa Abou Tasse won the Acqua Panna award for Connection in Gastronomy. Her cookbook recipe, Burst of Beirut, takes a traditional Lebanese stuffed cabbage dish of rice and meat, flavoured with pomegranate molasses, and raises it to new heights. In her recipe, Elissa commemorates the explosion of the grain silos in Beirut last year, symbolically using cracked wheat instead of rice in the dish. She gives detailed instructions on preparing veal tongue, an affordable and tasty cut that many home cooks no longer know how to use. “We don’t always need to buy expensive products.
I take humble products and respect them to make an elevated dish.” Rather than using the complex techniques she would at the restaurant, she looked to home cooking methods of the past, the finished dish is as pretty as a picture, “I made it as if my grandma was cooking it and I was plating.”
Forest Salad
Chef Marcus Gericke is the Fine Dining Lovers Food for Thought award winner. For his recipe, he reimagined the salad bowl as a celebration of summer. “I wanted to do a dish that encapsulated a healthy lifestyle and to offer something different to take to a party or braai. Something that blends well with smoky, bold flavours.” The addition of goats cheese makes this salad a satisfying main dish in its own right. With roast tomatoes, fried eggplant, a pea yoghurt, and pea chimichurri dressing, it is very much a showcase of summer ingredients, but can be adapted by using any seasonal produce available at the time, he says. “Moving with seasons and time shows development and growth in a dish. The recipe name leaves it open to interpretation and allows for seasonal twists and personal taste.”
Franschhoek Valley Verdure
Chef Callan Austin won the S.Pellegrino Social Responsibility award. His cookbook recipe was inspired by the spring ingredients found around him in the Franschhoek valley, trout, foraged wild herbs and greens, plated beautifully into three dishes. It is simplified from his usual restaurant techniques so that home cooks can buy ready-made kewpie mayonnaise and yuzu caviar which Callan would usually make from scratch. “The herbed emulsion was also simplified by using mayonnaise as the base to blend in all the fresh herbs. In the kitchen, I would have made a coconut cream reduction or a buttermilk emulsion utilising a lot more aromatics and lengthy cooking techniques.” He gives easy instructions for curing and smoking the trout and, if you don’t have a smoking tray, suggests smoking the trout trimmings in a Weber. “If people don’t have access to nature to forage various herbs, I would suggest replacing the wild herbs with fresh fennel, dill fronds, store-bought edible flowers/garnishes, coriander shoots/leaves, small basil leaves, and deep-fried curry leaves for texture.”
Enjoy these recipes and those from the other regional finalists of the world, as the Young Chefs prepare for the Grand Finale of S.Pellegrino Young Chef which will now take place from 28 – 30 October 2021 in Milan.
Find the Young Chef Cookbook free to download at Fine Dining Lovers and explore the world through the flavours of its young chefs.
For more information on the Young Chef Academy, a further demonstration of S.Pellegrino’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of culinary game-changers, please visit the Fine Dining Lovers webpage.
