Six young aspirant chefs took to their cooking stations recently in this year’s finals of the SPAR South Africa KwaZulu Natal Junior Chef competition.

The young primary school finalists battled it out for the first-place spot with twelve year old, Ryleigh Rutherford, taking home the honours with a delectable and flawless cheese cake. Twelve year old, Tiana Gangaram, was runner up with a superb tuna tart, which completely converted one non-fish eating judge.

The annual cook-off held in KwaZulu Natal saw the youngsters preparing a recipe that they had submitted as their competition entry, as well as a mystery dish – gingerbread men.

One of the judges, SPAR KwaZulu Natal Advertising and Promotions Manager, Nelene Rampersad who was instrumental in conceptualising the competition for SPAR in an effort to encourage young chefs, said: “I love that this year we had such a range of dishes from the finalists. This made judging difficult, and our taste-buds were put to the test, but after much deliberation, Ryleigh’s Cheese Cake came out tops. It was faultless – a great presentation, and top-class texture and flavour. Her gingerbread men were done to perfection with a crisp texture, with some fun iced decorations. Well done to all for the good food, great spirit and enthusiasm.”

Ryleigh won a R5,000 shopping voucher for her first-place position with runner up, Tiana receiving a R2,000 shopping voucher and all four remaining finalists each received a R500 SPAR shopping voucher. All finalists received a SPAR sweet hamper and a hamper packed with baking utensils to further their culinary aspirations.

“It was really fun,” said Ryleigh, who has always helped her mom in the kitchen ever since she can remember. “I enjoyed making my cheese cake here today. It was so exciting to work in a professional kitchen.”

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About SPAR South Africa: 

SPAR South Africa was established in 1963 and operates four retail formats: SPAR, SUPERSPAR, KWIKSPAR and SPAR Express. South Africa was the first country outside of Europe to join the SPAR organisation.

The SPAR Partner grants licences to independent retailers to operate stores under one of the four formats, with almost all of the current store portfolio being independently owned. In 2016, sales per m² increased by 6% in Euro terms, and sales for the year from SPAR South Africa’s 821 stores were €4.47 billion.