Great news for the South African National Culinary Team is that the City Lodge Hotel Group will be taking care of their accommodation needs as they prepare for next year’s IKA Culinary Olympics taking place in Erfurt, Germany!

This means that the eight member team – three from Johannesburg and five from Cape Town – will be able to get together for practices as they build up to the big event which takes place from October 22-26 in 2016.

If the Joburgers go down to Cape Town, they will be able to stay at any City Lodge Group Hotel – if the Capetonians come up to Joburg, they will be able to stay at any City Lodge Group Hotel.

As Heinz Brunner, manager of the SA National Culinary Team, says: “Travel is necessary to ensure that the team can practise together and then go back to their restaurants and perfect their dishes through including them on their own menus.” The team will practise at different venues every two months.

“We are training hard, developing an exceptional menu and working as a team to produce world-class food that represents South Africa’s culinary scene with excellence. We couldn’t do this without our fantastic sponsors and partners. A huge thank you goes to the City Lodge Hotel Group for their support as our accommodation partner and to Imperial LSC as our headline sponsor.”

Commenting on behalf of the City Lodge Hotel Group, Peter Schoeman, Divisional Director, Sales and Marketing, said: “It is a privilege for us to assist our Springboks of the food world as they prepare to represent our country in the world’s ultimate culinary challenge.”

The competition will see national teams from across the globe compete in categories such as Hot Kitchen, Cold Table and Pastry.