Tiny and remote South African beach eatery Wolfgat, where a seven-course meal costs US$60, is named the world’s best restaurant
- Chef Kobus van der Merwe opened Wolfgat two years ago in Paternoster, on the Atlantic shore of Western Cape, where he forages daily for ingredients
- The restaurant, which seats only 20 diners, was honoured at the inaugural World Restaurant Awards in Paris
A tiny beach restaurant in an isolated South African fishing village was named the best in the world on Monday.
Chef Kobus van der Merwe, who only began to properly cook when he was 30, forages every day for ingredients on the wild Atlantic shore of the Western Cape near his Wolfgat restaurant, where he also makes his own bread and butter.
Wolfgat – whose mostly female staff have no formal training – opened just two years ago in a 130-year-old cottage and cave on the beach at Paternoster.
It’s seven-course tasting menu costs the equivalent of US$60, a fraction of what you would pay at a top Paris table.
But its humble setting, and Van der Merwe’s belief in sustainable, back-to-basics cooking won over the judges of the inaugural World Restaurant Awards in the French capital.