A fiery passion
TOP Australian chef Duncan Welgemoed cooks on fire — either in embers or ashes, in ovens or cast iron pots.
All of these methods are showcased in his cookbook Africola, named for his Adelaide restaurant.
Welgemoed is a South African expat who came to Australia via London where he worked with executive chef Michael North at The Goose at Britwell Salome, which gained a Michelin star during Welgemoed’s time there.
He moved to Adelaide, where he cofounded Bistro Dom. From there, the accolades followed: his restaurant was named The Australian’s Hottest Restaurant in South Australia and earned a listing in Gourmet Traveller’s Top 100, and Welgemoed was crowned The Advertiser’s Chef of the Year (2013).
In 2014, he went out on his own, opening Africola, a restaurant dedicated to modern South African cuisine and classics from his childhood.
A fire in the kitchen led to a reassessment of what he was doing, and he reopened the doors with a new menu leaning towards vegetables and grains and less meat and with a focus on less wastage.
One of his mentors is chef Marco Pierre White, whom he met while working in London. Pierre White writes in a cook book’s foreword that Welgemoed’s restaurant is the best in the world.
Welgemoed writes of his food journey and about how his love for food stems from his childhood growing up in Johannesburg, an only child with a Scottish expat mother, chef father and a passionate foodie and exchef domestic worker.
‘‘The joy of food kept our world together.’’
The book, which is peppered with swear words and straight talking, has chapters titled ‘‘Slaughterhouse braai (meat)’’, ‘‘La Mer (vaguely vegan)’’,
‘‘Acid trip (recipes to cut through the richness)’’ and ‘‘Seriously whipped dessert’’ (his favourites), along with ones covering vegetables, seafood, condiments and cocktails.