Our tools go to the Antarctic with Jenna May

Posted on 26. Feb, 2010 by Marina in Yuppiechef Diary

We know what you’re thinking. But it’s a real iceberg. And yes, we are going to explain why this hazel-eyed lady, one of our favourite chefs in the whole world, is wearing one of our aprons and kissing one of our tools in the middle of Antarctica.

Meet Jenna May Viney: a farm girl from the South African Natal Midlands, with a flare for food that lands her in all sorts of interesting places.

After graduating from the Elsa Van Der Nest Culinary Academy in 2001 Jenna trained with acclaimed Chef Mike Barrett for six years at the well-known Ginja restaurant in Cape Town. She went on to do three years at a successful catering company, establishing a reputable name in the food industry.

Then the real love affair began. Combining her passion for all things culinary with an insatiable hunger for adventure, the sold-out foodie embarked on a career as a freelance chef and has spent the last 7 years exploring the world and doing what she does best.

Jealous yet? Well maybe we shouldn’t tell you that for three months of every year Jenna gets to cook up a storm at the ultra luxurious Whichaway ecological camp in the heart of Antarctica. She is the chef for White Desert – the only company in the world currently taking people into the largely unexplored Polar region.

Perched on top of a 200ft icefall, powered entirely by renewable energy and complete with heated tents, a library and a dining room – Jenna describes the surreal setting as ‘rarely visited yet utterly beautiful’.

Weight and space restrictions make the selection of kitchen utensils for the trip very difficult. So you can imagine how chuffed we were when the Wustof Classic Chefs Knife we sent Jenna as a bon voyage gift cracked the nod into her luggage. Jenna’s kitchen is full of Wusthofs and reckons that slicing and dicing just isn’t the same if you’re using a shabby knife you inherited from your Gran. We agree, as would Harold Wusthof, the seventh generation leader of the pioneering family business that has been manufacturing these beauties in Solingen, German since 1814.

For her next trip we’re going to introduce Jenna to a few amazing space saving products from the Joseph Joseph range like their Folding Colander and their genius 8-piece Nesting Bowls. For anyone who operates in a small kitchen or is on the move, these clever British designers have invented some beauties.

Constantly on the move, Jenna’s itinerary for the next few months includes cooking for high profile private clients in the North Pole, Russia and the Himalayas.

When asked for any advice for aspiring chefs, Jenna just laughed, which made her seem wonderfully mysterious. Thanks for taking one of our favourite kitchen tools on such an epic adventure.

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1. Best Kitchen Tools of 2009
2. 10 Dad-Perfect Kitchen Tools for Father’s Day
3. Kyocera Ceramic Knives now available on Yuppiechef
4. Kitchen knife basics 101: Part 1
5. The story of Spatula