Last month Chefs Zunia Boucher-Myers and Melanie Paltoglou of Avontuur Restaurant were named as 2022 Top 10 Women Chefs in the Cape.
It was a lucky month for the two chef owners, whose Avontuur Restaurant was also named as Best Date Night Restaurant in the KFm 30 Best in the Cape.
The Top 10 Women Chefs in Cape Town and the Winelands were announced on Women’s Day. Each winner receives a 1 litre tube of Rio Large Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Continue reading →
For the third year running we are acknowledging female chefs heading up restaurant kitchens in Cape Town and the Winelands.
Started during Lockdown in 2020, as a celebration of Women’s Day, the Top 10 Women Chefs List highlights how few top restaurants have female chefs in their kitchens in general, and even fewer have women chefs heading up the restaurant kitchens.
We are grateful to Brenda Wilkinson of RIO LARGO Olive Estate for sponsoring a gift of its beautiful colourful Extra Virgin Olive Oil packs to our Top 10 Women Chefs. Continue reading →
Women’s Day has been celebrated in South Africa on 9 August since 1995, and is an official public holiday.
The day commemorates the 20000 women who marched on the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956, to protest the extension of Pass Laws to women, which controlled women even further and reduced them to passive beings, at the mercy of men.
This year the theme of Women’s Day is ‘Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights for an Equal Future’. The day draws attention to the issues African women face, such as parenting, domestic violence, unequal pay, and schooling.
The celebration of women on one day only has grown to all of August being celebrated as Women’s Month.
As the rights of women have grown, many local women have climbed up corporate, political, academic, and Government ladders. These are some of them:
#. Helen Zille: Former Mayor of Cape Town and Premier of the Western Cape.
#. Professor Thuli Madonsela: former Public Protector, and current Law Trust Chair for Social Justice Research at the University of Stellenbosch
#. Nicky Newton-King, the first woman to run the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
#. Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town.
#. Dr Elmi Muller, organ transplant pioneer
#. Dr Mosadi Mahoko, award-winning plastic surgeon specialising in cleft lip and palate reconstruction surgery.
# Dr Glenda Gray, CEO and President of the SA Medical Research Council.
# Ministers Angela Thokozile Didiza, Maisie Angelina Motshekga, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Thandi Ruth Modise, Barbara Dallas Creecy, Mmamoloko Kubayi, Dr Naledi Pandor, Maite Emily Nkoana-Mashabane, Patricia de Lille, Lindiwe Sisulu, in the SA Government.
Women are still not receiving equal pay in many professions and jobs, and it is time that this gender discrimination be put an end to. They also do not receive equal opportunities in employment, and career advancement.
Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.whaletalesblog.com www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein, My Cape Town Guide/Mein Kapstadt Guide, Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide
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.