Chefs on the Move - All Things Culinary wins Oyster & Wine Mardi Gras  

Knysna, 8 July, 2010 – Cape Town-based catering concern Chefs on the Move – All Things Culinary has won the oyster cooking competition of the Pick n Pay Oyster & Wine Mardi Gras at a fun and flavour-filled event in Knysna last night. Presented by Tabasco and organised by the the Garden Route region of the South African Chefs Association, the Mardi Gras is the premier culinary event of the Pick n Pay Knysna Oyster Festival.

All Things Culinary’s deep fried oysters with oyster soup in a shooter glass tipped the scale ahead of the new Knysna restaurant of the Turbine Hotel in Thesen Harbour Town who presented a champagne lemon tempura oyster accompanied by a satay dressing and dill cream cheese. In third place was local development team Chefs @ Nauticus Place with a cream, greenpepper and herb quiche topped with oyster fried in butter.

Event coordinator Gino Adriaensen said the quality of entrants were exceptionally high this year. “Every year contestants come up with new flavours and presentations, proving indisputably that an oyster can be prepared in uncountable ways.”

Formerly known as the Oyster Cooking competition, the Mardi Gras has in recent years incorporated top class South African wine tables to add to the increasingly popular event’s appeal. Plettenberg Bay-based Bramon Wines won the best wine stall prize, with La Bri from Franschhoek and Paarl-based Avondale in second and third places respectively.

Celebrating life, good food and the 20^th anniversary of the Oyster Cooking Competition, this year’s Mardi Gras had a distinct carnival flavour as stall holders (and some guests who bought from Plettenberg Bay mask maker La Carla’s stall) sported colourful masks while entertainers, decorations and bubbly enhance the vibe.

Held in the Heineken® Pavilion on the Pick n Pay Knysna Oyster Festival Grounds in Waterfront Drive, the Mardi Gras gave 20 mainly local chefs the opportunity to devise the best oyster taste experience. Allowing for hot or cold presentation, chefs could use any method of preparation and ingredients to convince judges and some 800 guests of their oyster cooking superiority.  

This year’s cooking entrants were: African Relish, Chefs on the Move – All Things Culinary, Featherbed Company, Leisure Island Coffee Shop, Lemon Grass, Margaret’s Rest, Margot Swiss, Monkeyland Peppermill, Mo’s on Rex, Knysna Oyster Company, Kurland, Phantom Forest, Sails Restaurant, Sand at The Plettenberg, The Red Barn, Turbine Hotel, Zinza at Hunters Hotel and development teams Swing Café, Time 2 Travel and Nauticus.

This year’s wine representatives were: Avondale, Bonnievale, Bramon, Creation, GlenWood, Haute Cabriere, JC le Roux, Karusa, Montpellier, Muratie, La Bri, Rietvallei, Simonsig, Sterhuis, Topiary, Wildekrans, Obikwa and Wolvendrift.

Local charities have also benefited as the top three chefs and wine tables won a collective R35 000 for local charities of their choice. The Dorothy Broster Children’s Home, Animal Welfare, Knysna Hospice for children with HIV, Knysna Child Welfare, Vermont Old Age Home and the Lions of Knysna’s guide dog programme were charities of choice. An additional R25 000 will go towards Garden Route candidates in the South African Chefs Association’s development programme.  

The Mardi Gras each year also hosts development teams, trained in advance by a local chef but left to their own devices on the night. “We are especially proud of our development teams, which have once again shown initiative and commitment. It is the second year that a development team is in the top three,” said Adriaensen.

Cape Town-based Afro-classical band CODA provided entertainment following the prize giving.

The Pick n Pay Oyster & Wine Mardi Gras 2010 also has a group on Facebook. 

For more information about the Pick n Pay Oyster Festival, please visit www.oysterfestival.co.za.