The South African restaurant beat hands off 36 other restaurants from 36 countries including France, Australia and Zimbabwe to emerge the winner.
Wolfgat’s chef Kobus Van der Merwe, who only started cooking at the age of 30, welcomed the news and said he looked forward to celebrating with her staff.
“I don’t feel like I deserve it, it’s my collaborators, who go out every day to pick herbs, succulent plants and spinach that should be here,” the 38-year-old chef told AFP.
“.. It’s their baby. I look forward to celebrating with them with a tall glass of South African sparkling wine.”
Wolfgat – whose staff, mostly female, and with no formal training – opened two years ago in a 130-year-old cottage in a cave on Paternoster Beach on the west coast, 150 km from Cape Town.
Wolfgat delights in serving local products to the extreme and even makes its own bread and butter.
Kobus Van der Merwe, a former journalist, said that his philosophy was “to interfere as little as possible with the products and to serve them pure, raw and unprocessed. “
The restaurant, which serves a seven-course tasting menu for 850 rand ($60), can only feed 20 people at one sitting.
Located on an idyllic beach Wolfgat serves local mussels and oysters, but also plants and aromatic herbs growing in the dunes, such as bear garlic, spinach and native plants such as soutslaai.
