There are quite a few South African chefs dotted around the US, quietly infusing their dishes with typical South African flavors. One of our favorites is Koren Grieveson, who is the Chef de Cuisine at Avec Restaurant in Chicago. Besides creating amazing dishes for Avec, she has made Quesadillas for the Obama family on the White House lawn, and also participated in the Iron Chef TV show.

If you’re dining in and need some inspiration, here’s Koren creating an entire South African Dinner – yum. This really got us in the mood and we wasted more office time looking up other South African recipes on YouTube. We found out how to make Warthog Kebabs; Bunny Chow; Springbok with Apricot Chutney; and Salmon a la Steenberg. A common theme is the South African penchant for mixing meat with fruit whenever possible. It must be one of the few countries where chutney is more popular than ketchup.

And if the chef isn’t South African, the next best thing we look for is a South African who owns their own restaurant. Stanton Du Toit used to be a wine maker in South Africa and now owns The Sojourn Restaurant in New York. The Sojourn serves “small plates” from all over the world, very appropriate since that’s basically the foundation of South African cuisine. We actually like The Sojourn so much we’ve chosen it to be the venue for our next dinner event (more on that later).

Speaking of events, of course the Savor South Africa Contest is drawing to a close, final entries need to be in by March 20th. To find out if you’ve won our Gourmet Safari for two, we’ll be announcing it on Facebook and Twitter, so do sign up.