A tiny beach restaurant in the fishing village of Paternoster – The Wolfgat – has been named the best in the world!

Chef Kobus van der Merwe’s belief in sustainable, back-to-basics cooking won over the judges of the inaugural World Restaurant Awards in the French capital, Paris, on Monday night.

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Van der Merwe, who did not begin to cook seriously until he was 30, forages every day for ingredients on the wild Atlantic shore near his 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 fisherman’s cottage and close to the nearby Wolfgat cave on the beach at Paternoster.

Its seven-course tasting menu costs around R848.

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”, Wolfgat also won the prize for best “Off-Map Destination”.