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South Africans recently celebrated one of our own winning the title of ‘Restaurant of the Year’ at the World Restaurant Awards in Paris.

Wolfgat, a tiny restaurant in Paternoster, claimed the top spot, moving it from a little known off-the-map destination into the public eye.

Eat Out caught up with chef Kobus van der Merwe to find out about the win, the restaurant, and what comes next.

But first, enjoy the moment when Wolfgat staff found out that they’d won:

When asked how he’s feeling following his big win, van der Merwe had the following to say:

We’re all extremely excited and hugely honoured. It came as a massive surprise, because we really didn’t think we stood any chance looking at the competition. They’re restaurants that we’ve been following for a long time that are making international waves and operating on an extremely high level. We just didn’t expect it.

As you can see from the video above, the team was really proud to take home the gold, and the community was equally thrilled with the outcome. When van der Merwe arrived back in Paternoster after his trip to Paris, he was greeted by a group of schoolchildren and moms singing for him:

 

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The most heartwarming welcome back after a whirlwind trip to Paris: song and dance by St Augustine primary school and members of the Paternoster community. So incredibly special. Thank you. #Wolfgat #Paternoster #worldrestaurantawards #offmapdestination @worldrestawards #disnwolfgatding

A post shared by Wolfgat (@wolfgat) on Feb 21, 2019 at 1:10am PST

Van der Merwe says that he hopes that the win will mean that his bookings increase and roll over into winter.

But other than that, nothing will change. We’ll carry on doing what we’re doing and continue to evolve our menu because that’s why we were recognised in the first place.

We’ve managed to maintain a great work-life balance. We’re only one team that does everything and we have only two double shifts in a week, so we still deem our family time very important. As far as restaurant life goes, we still have it pretty decent.

Finally, he plans to keep on keeping on when it comes to creativity and experimentation:

It feels like we opened Wolfgat yesterday, so the West Coast is still our muse and we continue to grow, innovate, explore and discover. We deliberately try to not follow any trends, which can be so fickle and short-lived. We want the ingredients to shine and keeping the combinations simple but interesting. We want to continue challenging guests in an interesting way with textures and tastes and lighting new pathways in the brain.

One thing is for sure, he won’t be short of dinner guests.

If you want to eat at the world’s best restaurant, you need to book at least three months in advance.

You can read the full interview here.

Also if you haven’t yet seen the superb video that the World Restaurant Awards made featuring Kobus and Wolfgat, stop in here.

[source:eatout]