Internationally renowned Port Elizabeth-based chef Ralph Gottschalk will once again serve up a storm for world cup delegates – this time in Japan.
The Pastryworks owner will serve as executive chef at the Rugby World Cup in Tokyo, Japan, in September, just over a year after running the 2018 Fifa World Cup kitchen in Russia.
Though the German-born chef frequented world cup kitchens fairly regularly, it was natural to become nervous and excited each time, he said.
Gottschalk whipped up meals for the 2010 Fifa World Cup in SA, the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil, the European Olympics in Azerbaijan and the Asian Olympic Games in Turkmenistan.
“It’s very exciting and I still get nervous each time ... if I didn’t get nervous there would be something wrong with me.
“I tell my students all the time when they go for internships that you do a better job if you’re nervous than if you walk in to do something with a free spirit.
“If you’re not nervous – even if it’s a positive kind of nervous – then it means you are cocky and that’s where a problem comes up,” Gottschalk, who is also the founder of the South African Academy of Culinary Arts (Saaca), said.
He will head the kitchen from the day of the RWC opening ceremony in Tokyo until the final game in Yokohama on November 2.
While he does not like to compare the world cups he has served at, he said Japan was on a smaller scale than the Brazil and Russia world cups.
However, this did not mean a lower standard given the country was rated among the world’s best in culinary arts.
Gottschalk will return to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics.
“These are some of the biggest sport events in the world and to be involved in them is an honour and an opportunity that not everyone gets,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s not even about them being world cups, but any big or small event that you can become a part of to make it a great success.”
He said he was looking forward to being in Japan after a break of some years, more so to make new contacts.
“The other great thing about these engagements is that, every time I go somewhere, I make new friends and contacts.
“In the hospitality world we’re a very small family.
“Most of my students who I have placed overseas went there as a result of contacts I had made around the world through networking.”
Gottschalk, who has also cooked for personalities such as Oprah Winfrey, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Tom Cruise and Michael Jordan during the course of his career, said his next goal was to transform his chef’s school into being the best in the country.
“My goal to make Saaca the best in SA is well on track.
“The next thing would be to apply for a chef position on the first space shuttle if they need one,” he joked.
Born and bred in Hanover, Germany, Gottschalk’s career began when he was just 15.
He arrived in 2006 in Port Elizabeth, where he and his wife opened the Pastryworks bakery, which now boasts several outlets.
The business was later followed by Saaca, an internationally recognised academy that trains and places students in local and international hospitality establishments.
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