Celebrating Namibian Cuisine

Jeanette Diergaardt

The Nedbank Kapana Cook-Off 2021 saw yet again a successful preliminary round come to an end on Saturday 18 September at the Soweto Market in Katutura.

The competition saw more than 30 participants starting with the salsa round and the winners of the salsa round qualifying to braai the juicy meat strips known as kapana with a mixture of spicy kapana spice.

To complement the meat and salsa, sponsors Bakpro handed out a number of delicious junkies that were continuously made for the growing number of spectators.

The Namibia Chefs Association brought professionality to the table making sure that all participants received fair treatment and a fair chance to win.

Having been a part of the competition for the last five years, one of the chefs, Phillip Klynsmith, shared some of his expectations of a winning kapana, mentioning that the perfect salsa should have equally diced tomatoes and onions pairing beautifully with a perfect sliver of meat.

“The idea is to make kapana, our national dish in Namibia, something really international to have it at international restaurants,” says Phillip.

One of the five winners in Windhoek, Petrus Alweendo, caught the judges’ attention right from the start with his perfectly diced salsa ingredients that he finished making in a record time of two minutes, whereas most of the participants used the full five minutes allowed to them.

The second preliminary round will take place in the North on 2 October. After that, the 10 winners from the two preliminary rounds will have a go at the final prize on 16 October back in Windhoek, where the winner will walk away with a food truck to the value of N$100 000 and an opportunity to grow their business with and extra N$10 000 worth of cash prizes.

“Second- and third-place winners will receive an amount of N$7 000 and N$3 000 respectively,” says Selma Kaulinge, Nedbank’s manager for communication and public relations.