Upon meeting Wild Coast Sun\u2019s executive chef, Georgina Hill, one immediately gets the impression that she rules her kitchen brigade with a firm hand while inviting a sense of collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t achieve anything alone \u2013 I need my team beside me,\u201d\u00a0she says of the five senior chefs and 30 commis chefs with whom she manages five outlets at the resort \u2013 Chico\u2019s, Calypso, Country Club, Salon Priv\u00e9 and banqueting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She started at Wild Coast Sun in 2023, after more than 10 years as executive chef at fellow Sun International property, Golden Valley, in Worcester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI did 20 000 steps on my first day at Wild Coast Sun \u2013 this property is just huge, but it is absolutely beautiful. If you\u2019re stressed, you step outside and take in the ocean. It\u2019s a different world,\u201d\u00a0Hill said about her work location on the border of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 43-year-old chef has had a love of food since she first drove along gravel roads on her quad bike at 4 am, aged 15, to her weekend job at a Polokwane hotel.\u00a0\u201cI had expensive taste so my parents told me to get a job. I started working in the kitchen and soon realised how much fun it was. I never saw myself working in an office.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After school, Hill accepted an offer to work in hospitality on the Isle of Man and later completed a diploma in gourmet cooking and catering while working at a pub. She and husband, Jackie, relocated back to South Africa after the birth of their first child.\u00a0<\/em>\u201cJackie was working in hospitality but he switched to real estate which gives him more time at home with our three kids while I work late nights and weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A practising vegetarian, Hill is fully on-board with vegan and gluten-free dietary requirements, although she says she has tried all types of meat and is perfectly comfortable cooking everything from a slow braised lamb shank to a mutton curry.\u00a0\u201cIt is challenging to cook with ingredients you don\u2019t eat, because how can you cook it if you don\u2019t know what it\u2019s supposed to taste like \u2013 so I try everything at least once.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diners can expect to see more vegetarian, gluten-free and vegan dishes popping up on the resort\u2019s buffet and menus, although Wild Coast Sun is frequented by many regulars who also love their curries and meat. \u201cWe have been refining the menus slowly and changing things up. Many of the chefs have been here a long time so I am focused on upskilling the team. We try to use what is locally produced so that ingredients don\u2019t have to be brought in from Johannesburg.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Golfers have been enjoying a refresh at the Country Club, with the introduction of salads for lighter fare, a mutton burger and solid meals like gatsbys and bunny chows to cure hunger pangs after 18-holes of golf.\u00a0\u201cBacon and egg rolls remain a popular staple, so these have been kept but we improved the plating because we eat with our eyes first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wild Coast Sun is a popular conferencing destination, and Hill is looking forward to growing the venue into a destination wedding venue par excellence.\u00a0\u201cYou cannot find a more stunning location to take your wedding photos than the natural beauty of Wild Coast Sun,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If she\u2019s cooking for her family, Hill makes a crock pot lasagne, and for guests, vegan French toast which she says\u00a0\u201ctastes amazing and you don\u2019t even realise contains no eggs\u201d.<\/em>\u00a0Airfryer enthusiasts will be relieved to hear that one of her favourite kitchen gadgets at home is this ubiquitous machine, and at work, she values proper knives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a chef you are never too old to learn \u2013 so keep trying new things \u2013 sometimes they flop but almost everything can be rescued. Make sure you have fun cooking because you can taste the love in the food.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Adding to the menu of favourites with on-trend cuisine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atableforone.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atableforone.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atableforone.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atableforone.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atableforone.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atableforone.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2969,"href":"https:\/\/atableforone.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions\/2969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atableforone.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atableforone.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atableforone.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atableforone.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}