Chef Charné Sampson is one of the youngest 2021 Top 10 Women Chefs, and heads up the kitchen at Epice at Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek. She wins a bottle of Adhara Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I was unable to meet her as she was ill on Sunday, when I delivered her prize.
Chef Charné graduated from Silwood in 2016. She did her internship at Myoga, Woolworths, Waterkloof, The Test Kitchen, and at La Colombe. She stayed on at La Colombe, until 2019, when she was given the opportunity to head up Epice.
Epice is one of a number of restaurants in the La Colombo restaurant group. Chef Charné took the restaurant to Best New Restaurant in Africa in the inaugural World Culinary Awards. Epice is a fine dining restaurant, its dishes flavour-filled with spices.
On the almost eve of the first anniversary of the Corona Lockdown in our country, a big shout out must go to Highbury Media, owners of the online publication Cape Town Etc, which is investing R1 million in the Cape Town Restaurant industry, one of the hardest hit sectors of our economy by the Covid-19 Lockdown. The company is providing marketing support to any restaurants requesting such, by writing and posting articles about restaurants and their special features. 
The Sweet Service Award goes to Discovery Vitality, for its gift of 2000 points for ‘2019 fitness top-up points’ and 12500 points for ‘2019 Vitality Health Check points’ received on 31 October, related to the fact that due to Lockdown we have not been able to do as much exercise as before, nor do all the points-earning health checks compared to 2019. Whatever the reason, I am not complaining, as the 14500 bonus points catapulted me into Diamond Status, the first time since joining Discovery four years ago. 
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected every person and business, and restaurants and their owners have not been excluded from its impact. One of our country’s top restaurants, The Test Kitchen in Woodstock, as well as The Foodbarn in Noordhoek, have transformed themselves in their offering, even going so far as to change their restaurant names. These are two restaurants which have reacted to the effects of the Corona Lockdown of the past six months.