A team of three students at COOKtastic was announced as Seafood Masters at the Breco Seafoods Master competition, a seafood-inspired cook-off that took place on 23 August 2023.

The winning team members are Amyna Salomo, Timna Sele and Jabulile Makhanya, who competed against six other teams to create innovative seafood dishes using products such as half-shell mussels, Vannamei prawns, squid tubes, pollock, and snoek. The winning team created a saucy mussels and prawns dish with harissa and chermoula paste that wowed the judges with its flavour and taste.

Breco Seafoods, a brand of Atlantis Foods, sponsored the Breco Seafoods Master competition. Breco Seafoods offers a broad range of quality seafood products from around the world, such as prawns from Ecuador, Argentina and India, calamari and fish from China, and numerous locally sourced seafood products.

The competition aimed to provide aspiring young chefs with a platform to display their knowledge, skills and talent for preparing and cooking seafood from sustainable sources while following the correct food safety procedures. Through the culinary school, students were provided with the experience of learning how to prepare and cook seafood correctly. At the same time, the competition serves as a test and showcase of these new skills.

COOKtastic runs a culinary training school to empower talented youths from disadvantaged backgrounds. With the goal of 80% job placement for graduates, they also offer job placement support to springboard students to entrepreneurship in the hospitality field. Trainee chefs devote countless hours to honing their craft, pushing their limits, and expanding their product knowledge.

Participating in the Breco Seafood Masters Competition gave them a precious opportunity to learn from industry professionals and gain invaluable experience, including a factory tour of the Atlantis facilities, fish filleting and hygiene training. Their hard work and passion paid off as they presented the judges with delicious gastronomic inventions prepared with Breco's finest seafood selection.

Judges included Jocelyn Myers-Adams, chef and founder of JMA Consulting, Ruben Brown from Chefs Warehouse Group, Pavitray Pillay from WWF SASSI, and Sadiqa Fredericks, Quality Assurance Manager for Atlantis Foods.

The students’ dishes were evaluated on criteria like unique and original recipes, good execution of the dish, appearance and presentation, taste, texture, and aroma. The application of food safety rules and the sustainable and responsible use of ingredients, water, and energy were also critical factors.

Judges provided valuable feedback, which served as a mini masterclass in cooking and flavouring seafood, while keeping a check on the way food waste is managed and monitoring hygiene and general food safety.

Each winning team member won a six-piece Grunter knife set, with the second-place team winning vouchers valued at R1500 each from Bank’s Catering to help them start their hospitality career with quality equipment.

Breco Seafoods is proud of its involvement in developing, supporting, and training young chefs, specifically in helping them better understand seafood as a product choice and encouraging them to awaken their inner master chefs.

Change your view of seafood by checking out the newly launched Breco website. This sleek and beautifully designed online hub is dedicated to sharing seafood knowledge and simple, delicious, and healthy seafood recipes - it promises to be the starting point for all seafood enthusiasts.