Heat on to find another red-hot Kitchen Maestro

NEXT month will mark the start of the third “season” of the popular Kitchen Maestro competition – a search for the best amateur chef the Bay can offer.

Presented by Walmer Park Shopping Centre and sponsored by First Choice in association with Weekend Post, the competition kicks off on Saturday April 11, at 11am, with a celebrity cook-off that will see four EP Kings players cooking up a storm just before their match against Western Province that afternoon.

Home cooks can in the meantime start getting ready to enter. There is again a fantastic prize package to be won.

There is no entry fee and the competition is open to anyone over the age of 16 who is not a professional chef, but is confident in the kitchen.

Five entrants will be chosen each week to compete against each other in a series of live weekly “Mystery Box” cook-offs to be held at Walmer Park every Saturday, starting on April 18, up to and including May 16.

The winner of each weekly cook-off will secure a place in the semifinals to be held on Saturday May 23, and the top two from the semifinals will move on to the final cooking challenge on Sunday March 24, where the third Kitchen Maestro will be crowned.

Entry forms are available at the information kiosk at Walmer Park, or visit the website www.walmerparkshoppingcentre.co.za and follow the link to the Kitchen Maestro page to download the entry form.

Entrants must complete the entry form and submit it, together with the recipe of their signature dish, a photograph of the completed dish and a short story on why they love cooking/how they got interested in cooking/why they want to win Kitchen Maestro.

Entry forms must be e-mailed to dbloem@ growthpoint.co.za or hand delivered to the Walmer Park information kiosk by latest noon on the Wednesday of each week.

Five entrants will be chosen for that coming week’s live cook-off and contacted telephonically to confirm their participation.

Each entrant will have his or her own workstation from where they will whip up a dish from “Mystery Box” ingredients provided and sponsored by First Choice, all under the watchful eye of lead chef Dewald Hurter, owner of Maykoy food truck, Flair Catering and Chez Patrick.

The weekly cook-off rounds will take place from 11am to 1pm every Saturday.

There are fantastic prizes up for grabs for all the contestants as well as for the eventual winner.

For more information on the 2015 Walmer Park Kitchen Maestro competition, e-mail Deveda Bloem at dbloem@growthpoint.co.za or call (041) 368-2690.

Also check out the Weekend Post every Saturday for weekly cook-off updates.

-Weekend Post Reporter