Team Masakhane readies nine young chefs for Luxembourg

South Africa's national junior culinary team, Team Masakhane, has named nine chefs under 25 to compete at the 2026 Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg this November.

The SA Chefs Association selected the squad through a national trials process, drawing from hotel kitchens and culinary schools around Johannesburg. Unami Binda and Lesedi Morudi both cook at the Four Seasons Hotel The Westcliff and trained at Capsicum Culinary Studio; Loyiso Mlondo and Phenyo Pooe come from 54 on Bath; Elizabeth Ncube and Ethan Joseph from the Saxon Hotel; Pholoso Sebola from the Marriott Melrose Arch; Callum Condie from Swiss Hotel School; and Makgobokele Nchabeleng works as a private chef.

Two formats, one Hot Kitchen deadline

Masakhane means let us build together. Luxembourg is where that promise gets judged.

Held every four years, the Culinary World Cup is expected to bring more than 2,000 chefs from 55 countries to Luxembourg from 21 to 25 November. Team Masakhane will compete in two formats: a Hot Kitchen round that means cooking a three-course meal for 70 diners under time pressure, and a Chef's Table round built around a three-dish themed sequence judged on technique as much as flavour. Training has run for months under a coaching staff built specifically for this cycle.

Head coach Donaldson Madubela leads that staff, working alongside technical head coach Marcus Gericke and pastry coach Catherine Adonis, with Pieter Malan managing the team and Mahlomola Thamae overseeing talent development. "Team Masakhane is going to Luxembourg to demonstrate that they can plan, create, execute and serve food to international competition standards," said SA Chefs president Coo Pillay.

What building together costs

Masakhane means "let us build together," and the name carries a practical weight: training, travel, accommodation and competition costs are being raised through SA Chefs' own fundraising drive and structured corporate sponsorship, on top of the hours the coaching team gives outside paid work. For chefs still early in careers built around hotel kitchens and culinary schools, Luxembourg is less a finish line than the first international measure of how that training holds up under judges' scrutiny, the same test that shapes competitions like the S.Pellegrino Young Chef final.