The Culinary Olympics, the oldest, largest and most diverse international culinary arts competition in the world, is open to people with a particular passion for cooking from more than 60 nations to face up to their competitors and a jury of experts.

The Group Executive Chief of the Fiesta Hotels and Residences, Pieter Malan, is among 2,000 chefs from around the world preparing to compete in this year’s competition and he has indicated that he would explore with lots of food ideas from West Africa.

“For the first time in the history of this competition, we are presenting menus from food that are being eaten every day in West Africa.

No special imports, they are all local products and local foods that have been innovated,” Mr Malan said at an event to send him off to the competition.

The send-off, organised by the management and staff of the Fiesta Hotels and Residences, gave attendees the privilege to taste his special cuisines which are firmly rooted in the origins of West African delicacies.

Culinary competition

Mr Malan described his selection for the competition as a reward for his entire team who had worked tirelessly to push the restaurant thus far among other things, contesting in the World Luxury Restaurant Award and also winning the Best Innovative Restaurant in the world and the Best African Restaurant.

“This was all done by a team driven by pure passion and always pushing the limit to achieve something spectacular with the availabilities that they have.

“We always look at how we can showcase West African food by bringing modern techniques to West African cuisine,” Mr Milan said.

He described being among the 2,000 chefs for the event as a dream come true for him, “I have since my childhood dreamt of competing in the Culinary Olympics.

“It is one of the oldest competitions dating back to the early 1900s and it is the biggest dream of any chef to compete just as every athlete wants to compete in the Olympic Games.

West Africa cuisines

Speaking about his cooking prowess, Mr Milan said he always loved to create once-in-a-lifetime experiences and give his clients a taste they had never felt before.

He said he was surprised when he got to West Africa and saw the beautiful tropical influence of food in the region, how creative the local chefs were and their ability to use whatever was available to create extraordinary cuisine.

“The moment we started learning about these good cultures and flavours, it became a perfect blueprint to start working on our new menus and start elevating these local flavours into modern cuisines so that people will appreciate these foods that were seen as survival food for a very long time,” Mr Milan stated.

Career

Mr Malan started his journey in the restaurant industry as a waiter at the early age of 12 and has held numerous positions such as Executive Chef at Ginelli’s in 2012 where he won some awards.

He was also the first Executive Chef for the Berg en Dal Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park.