A tiny beach restaurant in an isolated¹ South African fishing village was named the best in the world on Monday.

 

南非一个孤立的渔村里一座小海滩餐厅周一获评世界最好餐厅。

 

Chef Kobus van der Merwe, who did not begin to cook seriously until he was 30, forages² every day for ingredients on the wild Atlantic shore of the Western Cape³ near his Wolfgat restaurant, where he also makes his own bread and butter.

 

The Wolfgat - whose six mostly female staff have no formal training - opened just two years ago in a 130-year-old cottage and cave on the beach at Paternoster.

 

Its seven-course tasting menu costs the equivalent of 53 euros ($60), a fraction of what you would pay at a top Paris table.

 

But its humble⁴ setting, and Van der Merwe's belief in sustainable, back-to-basics cooking won over the judges of the inaugural⁵ World Restaurant Awards in the French capital.

 

The 38-year-old, who can feed only 20 people at a sitting, told AFP, "I don't feel worthy⁶. It's a big title. My staff who go out every day gathering⁷ herbs, succulents and dune⁸ spinach⁹, should be here... It's their baby.

 

"I can't wait to celebrate with them with a big glass of South African sparkling wine."

 

With dishes such as twice-cooked laver (seaweed), angelfish with bokkom sambal and wild garlic masala, limpets, mussels and sea vegetables harvested within sight of its "stoep" (porch), Wolfgat also won the prize for best "Off-Map Destination".

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