More than 3000 young chefs submitted their application together with their signature dish to participate to S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2015, the global scouting project to find the world’s best young chefs.

Applications were divided into 20 regions, according to the geographic area of origin, dishes were judged  according to five Golden Rules: ingredients, skills, genius, beauty, message.

A fantastic seven of the Top 10 selected for Africa and Middle East, were South African chefs, and in this series we catch up with each of them.

24-year old Angelo Scirocco works in the kitchen at Chefs Warehouse in Cape Town. He tells us a bit about himself and his dish.

It is an amazing achievement to have been placed in the Top Ten of this award selection – congrats! Tell us about your journey to entering…

Since I’ve become a chef, I’ve always wanted to enter, I was able to enter this year and so I did.

Tell us about the dish that got you here…

It’s a dish consisting of milk as the main component. The dish has progressed into a dessert.

Without giving too much away, do you have an idea what you will be cooking in the next round?

The dish I’m guessing has to be the same, but improvements will be allowed.

Chef David Higgs is the selected mentor for this group – daunting or exciting…or both?

Daunting, because you cooking a dish that will be given professional advice.

Quickfire Questions…

Current favourite ingredient… Jalapeños.

Kitchen tool you cant live without…  a thermometer.

Your foodie guilty pleasure… Foie gras.

Bucket list foodie destination… Barcelona.

Drink after a long, hard service… Gin and tonic.

Funniest kitchen experience to date… I sous vide hazelnuts instead of organic chick peas my first week at The Test kitchen!