Reagan Muller. Photo: Melkbos.net

Look who’s cooking! The winner of the Banks Youth Day Cook-Off 2016 competition is hard at work in the kitchen of the Seafood Lapa in Melkbosstrand. Reagan Muller (14) took time off yesterday to chat to Melkbos.net about his passion (food!) and his hero (not Jamie Oliver!).

The young chef’s hero is his father. And if you know his father, you’ll understand. Reagan, who goes to school in Vredenburg, is helping dad Patrick Muller, who has a CV as flavoursome as a seafood platter, in the restaurant’s kitchen. “I help with the fries and grilling and I also sometimes jump in at the pizza section. I can do anything in the kitchen,” he says proudly.

A family of cooks
Small wonder. Everyone in the Muller family seems to cook, from Reagan’s granny who was a test cook for Sarie magazine for 30 years, to his uncle who presided over the kitchen of a grand hotel at the Waterfront, and his father who has presided over equally grand kitchens, and now him. Reagan’s first kitchen memories go back to when he was four years old. He started prepping at the age of 10, and cooking at the age of 12. Two years later he’s Da Bomb. Well, he seems to have been Da Bomb already last year when he entered and won the Banks competition.

Reagan with Banks competition judge Jenny Morris. Photo: Facebook

A tasty tower
He entered at the last moment, he explains. A day before the competition closed. But his winning entry was ambitious, making up for his lateness. “I made a steak and butternut and potato tower,” he says. The dish consisted of multiple layers: potato, steak, butternut, with more potato, and more steak, and all of this topped by rice noodle and garlic butter. The dish came with a salsa and a stir fry. You can see it in the photo on the right. It looks impressive, eh. Equally impressive was that the dish was prepared in less than 45 minutes.

R40 000’s prizes
Reagan’s practical side also shows when Melkbos.net asks him what he won. He won kitchenware to the value of R40 000 and says that naming all the items will take too long. As the winner of the competition he also appeared on Expresso morning show where he demonstrated baking bran muffins.

Keep this in mind when you eat at the Seafood Lapa this school holiday and see a young chef whizz by in a striped blue apron. It most probably is Reagan Muller,  on his way to tasty heights.