Minister Winde Congratulates the Test Kitchen

On Tuesday, 8 May 2012, Western Cape Minister for Economic Development and Tourism, Alan Winde, visited the Test Kitchen to congratulate the owner, Chef Luke Dale-Roberts, on his restaurant being voted the 74th best in the world in the S. Pellegrino awards.

Together with the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français, which placed 57th on the list, the two were the only African restaurants to make the list.

The S. Pellegrino annual awards, organised by Restaurant Magazine, are widely considered to be the leading barometer of international food trends. The list of the best 100 restaurants in the world is created by World's 50 Best Restaurants Academy, an influential group of over 800 international leaders in the restaurant industry from 27 regions around the world, each selected for their expert opinion of the international restaurant scene.

Congratulating Chef Dale-Roberts, Minister Winde said: "It is wonderful that our restaurants are being rated amongst the best in the world. This will go some way in making the restaurant industry more competitive and taking it to the next level. The Western Cape is recognised for its oceans, wines and mountains, and must be recognised for its gastronomy too. I will be looking into having our food industry marketed along with the already established wine industry."

Chef Luke Dale-Roberts demonstrated to Minister Winde how to make one of his signature dishes from his Discovery menu - home-dried tomato, pickled tomato, miso cream cheese, wood-fired aubergine dressing, jalapeno and apple puree.

Chef Dale-Roberts said: "There isn't a single person who comes to the Test Kitchen and is not completely blown away. The accolade is particularly exciting as we have only been open for 19 months. Food in Cape Town has exploded and everyone is pushing themselves to achieve even better results."