CNN International’s half-hour magazine programme, African Voices Playmakers, this week showcases the culinary prowess of two foremost chefs from Republic of Benin and Mauritius. The programme is sponsored by telecommunications giant, Globacom.
The two innovative chefs are Georgiana Viou, noted for fusing the taste of his Beninese roots to make exquisite cuisines in France where she is domiciled, and Ayushi “Chef Yu” Gooroochurn, the youngest executive chef in Mauritius, who paints a unique culinary identity using an inventive palette of tastes and flavours.
Viou emigrated from the Republic of Benin to Paris, France, with the aim of becoming an interpreter, by a stroke of luck, however, she found herself working in the culinary arena. By March this year, her skills had attracted so much attention that Michelin Guide, the bible of gastronomy, awarded her a star for her cuisine at “Rouge,” a restaurant in the southwestern French city of Nimes. The Michelin star was bestowed on her in recognition of her “singular cuisine … celebrating her Mediterranean environment and Benin roots.”
The 46-year-old mother of three and self-tutored chef was a candidate on the popular TV show Master Chef only to emerge a member of the jury on the same programme a few years later.
34-year-old Ayushi Gooroochurn, popularly called Chef Yu, cooking comes naturally. She is the Executive Chef at the Constance Belle Mare Plage Hotel in Mauritius where she and her team have been awarded certificates of appreciation for their masterpiece culinary presentations.
Both chefs will satiate viewers with their tales of success on African Voices Playmakers on Saturday at 8.30 a.m. Repeats will air the same day at 2.00 p.m. and on Sunday at 4.30 a.m., 7.00 p.m. and Monday at 4.00 a.m. The same edition will be repeated on Saturday, next week at 8.30 a.m., 12 noon, on Sunday at 4.30 a.m., 7.00 p.m. and on Monday at 4.00 a.m.
