Kamini Pather, the 29-year-old food blogger from Cape Town is South Africa’s second MasterChef as she narrowly beat 23-year-old scientist from Mahikeng, Leandri van der Wat, in the final round of MasterChef South Africa Season 2 at the MasterChef kitchen on the beautiful Nederburg wine estate.

In Wednesday’s 90-minute special Leandri and Kamini competed in three different rounds: a Mystery Box challenge with eleven of Chef Pete Goffe-Wood’s favourite ingredients, including Western Cape rock lobsters, capers, coriander, watercress, fennel bulbs, pink fir potatoes and Nederburg Chardonnay; an Invention Test with chicken as the hero ingredient; and then a final Pressure Test in which they had to recreate an elegant dessert of Chef Andrew Atkinson’s, comprising a choux pastry éclair filled with peanut butter ice cream and topped with glossy pomegranate glaze, an orange reduction, warm pomegranate jellies, a pliable chocolate rope, and candied orange peel.

In the Mystery Box challenge, Leandri presented seared lobster medallions with a lobster custard and herb soup, while Kamini created a lobster tagliatelle with a creamy fennel sauce. In round two, the Invention Test, Kamini plated up a chicken terrine with chicken liver mousse and crispy chicken shards, while Leandri’s offering consisted of a chicken liver brulée with crispy polenta chips and fruit chutney.

The three MasterChef judges scored each round out of a hundred but only revealed the aggregate score at the end of the competition: 83 for Leandri versus Kamini’s 89.

“Thousands of amateur cooks embarked on the journey, but only 16 made it to the MasterChef kitchen,” Chef Benny Masekwameng summed up. “And now one prevailed. She has survived all the challenges we threw at her and Kamini Pather has earned the right to call herself South Africa’s MasterChef!”

“Maybe my mom will even let me cook Christmas dinner this year!” Kamini laughed delightedly.

As South Africa’s new MasterChef Kamini walks away with a prize package containing the following:

From Robertson’s, a cash prize of R400 000; a brand new VW Golf 7; a 5 night luxurious Maia Luxury Resort & Spa holiday in the Seychelles for the winner and a partner, including business class airfares and spending money, courtesy of Tsogo Sun; a year’s free shopping at Woolworths valued at R100 000, as well as a year’s supply of wine and a full sommelier course from Nederburg!

Leandri also doesn’t walk away empty-handed. Apart from being able to call herself the runner-up of Season 2 of MasterChef South Africa, she will go home with R100 000 cash, courtesy of Robertson’s!

Images courtesy of MasterChef SA

Kamini Pather is the new South African MasterChef! first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

The heat was really on in the penultimate episode of MasterChef South Africa Season 2 in which 25-year-old Seline, the engineer from Mahikeng, and 29-year-old Kamini, the Cape Town food blogger, battled it out to see who would compete against Seline’s sister, 23-year-old scientist Leandri, to win the title of South Africa’s MasterChef!

Meanwhile Leandri herself was enjoying a well-earned rest at Tsogo Sun’s luxurious 54 On Bath hotel in Rosebank, Johannesburg, where she was surprised by a visit from her dad and younger sister, who presented Leandri with a very special gift: her MasterChef chef’s jacket for the finalé, with her name properly embroidered on the left breast. Leandri’s proud father also hung a very special pendant around her neck for luck, which belonged to her late mother. “These are the sort of moments that you look back on in fifty years’ time,” Leandri confessed tearfully.

Back at the MasterChef kitchen on the Nederburg wine estate Seline and Kamini had to recreate a complex dish based on a “chawanmushi”, or a traditional Japanese custard, set for them by one of South Africa top chefs, Luke Dale-Roberts from the acclaimed The Test Kitchen in Cape Town.

One of the elements in this complicated dish was sweetbreads cooked “sous-vide”, which means slow-poaching them vacuum-packed in a water bath. “The closest I’ve gotten to this is a bubble bath!” Kamini joked with the judges.

In the end the judging came right down to the wire. Chef Benny Masekwameng said Seline made “a fantastic replication of Chef Luke’s prototype dish” and celebrity chef Luke Dale-Roberts himself was “very, very impressed” with Kamini’s effort. But only one of them could win a spot in the MasterChef finalé, and that person was Kamini.

Seline was gracious in defeat. “These aren’t tears of sadness. It’s like joy, and pride, and relief,” she reassured the judges. “Well done,” she congratulated Kamini, cautioning her to “be nice” to her little sister in the final competition!

And as she literally skipped out of the MasterChef kitchen, Seline reflected that she felt blessed. “It feels like it wasn’t even about food, after all this time,” she said. “I found a part of myself I didn’t know I had. I feel like believe in myself more – like I trust my instincts.”

Images courtesy of MasterChef SA

Seline van der Wat ponders what could have been as she leaves sister Leandri to face Kamini in the final. first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

The Top 4 contestants in MasterChef South Africa Season 2 didn’t know what lay ahead of them when they walked into the MasterChef kitchen in Wednesday’s episode for the Top 4 Pressure Test because for the first time ever they were all dressed in the ominous black aprons.

And 25-year-old Mahikeng engineer Seline got even more worried when she noticed some strange equipment in the kitchen. “Palette knives … goggles … and siphon guns,” she pointed out nervously. Cape Town food blogger Kamini (29) also noticed a crisp white chef’s jacket displayed in one corner. “But it doesn’t have any name on it,” she pointed out. “We’ve all been dying to wear those chef’s jackets!”

“Today we are turning up the heat!” Andrew Atkinson welcomed the Top 4. Fellow judge Benny Masekwameng explained that all four of them would compete in this pressure test for the ultimate prize: the winner would get to wear the chef’s jacket in the corner and go straight through to the finalé!

And because the stakes were so high this time, the judges invited one of South Africa’s top chefs to set the contestants a challenge the likes of which they have never seen: Chef Richard Carstens from Tokara restaurant in Stellenbosch, who was voted Chef of the Year in 2005 and is the only chef ever to take three different restaurants to the Eat Out Top 10 list.

Chef Carstens challenged the contestants with a spectacular dessert that he calls “The Chocolate Handkerchief”, comprising the eponymous chocolate “handkerchief” made out of tempered chocolate, a chocolate cremeux, a chocolate chiboust, orange jelly, a white chocolate mousse, chocolate aero, and liquid nitro chocolate foam with a bit of chocolate streusel underneath, decorated with white chocolate branches and some pistachio powder.

“It’s like something out of a sci-fi movie!” Kamini marveled. “You don’t know if you want to stand there and just watch it kind of froth over itself, or if you actually want to taste it.”

After an epic two-hour struggle 22-year-old Cape Town student Ozzy told the judges this was by far the most excruciating challenge he had ever faced in the MasterChef kitchen. “And it clearly shows on my plate,” he added ruefully. Ozzy’s version of the chocolate handkerchief didn’t quite work out – “I call it the flying carpet,” he laughed good-naturedly.

Kamini also said this challenge was her Mount Everest. But guest chef Richard Carstens told the Top 4 he was extremely impressed with their efforts.  “Replicating and reproducing this dish is quite a daunting task, for even a professional chef,” he told them. “As amateurs I think you really did an amazing job.”

The scientist from Mahikeng, 23-year-old Leandri, was the only contestant who told the judges that she had fun with this challenge, and to no-one’s surprise she was declared the winner. In addition to going straight through to the finalé Leandri also won a welcome respite at Tsogo Sun’s spectacular 54 On Bath hotel in Johannesburg.

But for Ozzy his “flying carpet” dessert meant the end of his road with MasterChef. But he was gracious in defeat. “I feel really sad that I’m eliminated but I don’t feel sad getting eliminated against those contestants,” he said. “Nothing could have taught me the things I have learned in MasterChef,” he added. “I have loved every single second of this journey. This is where it all begins for me.”

And that left Kamini and 25-year-old Mahikeng engineer Seline to face each other in a titanic battle for the last spot in the MasterChef South Africa Season 2 finalé next week!

Images courtesy of MasterChef SA

It’s oh so close for Ozzy as he leaves MasterChef SA in a philosophical mood. first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

Cape Town graduate Jason was the 12th person to hang up his apron in Tuesday’s episode of MasterChef South Africa Season 2, leaving the engineer and scientist sisters from Mahikeng, Seline van der Wat and Leandri van der Wat, Cape Town food blogger Kamini Pather and Johannesburg student Ozzy Osman in the Top 4.

While Ozzy was enjoying his MasterClass in sustainable fishing at the Dyer Island Conservation Trust in Gansbaai, Kamini, Seline and Jason faced off in a Pressure Test at the MasterChef kitchen, recreating Chef Kelvin Joel of the Jozi Maboneng Precinct’s magnificent lemon meringue gateau.

Chef Joel pointed out the different layers of his creation to the three contestants: meringue, mousse, lemon curd, dacquoise sponge, and a choc-chip-cookie base. “There are so many components that go into it,” Kamini observed nervously. “It’s not like any lemon meringue I’ve ever tasted,” she worried.

“It is beautifully layered,” said Seline, admiring Chef Joel’s masterpiece. “It looks like he measured it with a ruler to get everything precisely in the middle, perfectly straight. The layers are all the right thickness… This cake is perfect!”

And when the time came for Seline to unveil her own interpretation of the dish she worried if her layers would be equally perfect. “You can pipe pretty little peaks onto the outside of a cake but when you cut into it, it’s the real stuff that matters, you know?” she said. But judge Andrew Atkinson was quick to reassure Seline that she got the layers “spot-on”. “I think it’s a magnificent attempt. Superb cake,” Pete Goffe-Wood agreed.

Chef Joel liked all the flavours in Kamini’s gateau, “but the meringue is just slightly not shiny enough,” he commented. “But otherwise the execution wasn’t bad,” he told her. This was surprising to the food blogger, as she seemed to have struggled the most out of everyone in the pressure test tonight, having to re-do certain steps of her recipe while time was running out.

But when it was Jason’s turn to present his dessert, Benny Masekwameng explained that he didn’t fold the egg whites into his mousse correctly. “That’s why the mousse is a little on the heavy side and also your dacquoise shrunk and became thin and chewy,” Benny explained. At the Top 5 stage of MasterChef “it’s all or nothing,” Andrew reminded Jason, and so unfortunately this meant the end of Jason’s MasterChef dream.

“It’s the end of the journey now but, you know, I’m Top 5,” Jason commented happily as he said his goodbyes. “I never pictured being in the Top 5 of MasterChef South Africa.”

Images courtesy of MasterChef SA

Jason Steel reaches the end of his MasterChef SA journey first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

The MasterChef South Africa Season 2 contestants are down to the Top 5: 25-year-old Mahikeng engineer Seline, her 23-year-old sister Leandri, 29-year-old food blogger Kamini and 22-year-old students Ozzy and Jason, and in Wednesday’s episode they faced possibly their hardest challenge so far when they found themselves confronted with an almost empty pantry.

The MasterChef judges explained that challenge to the Top 5 was to create something delicious and flavourful from a bare “end-of-the-month” type pantry. “I’m sure you’ve all had that experience at some point at the end of the month – you get to the fridge, there’s not too much in there …” explained Andrew Atkinson. “You got some tinned pilchards, you’ve got some olives, a little bit of gherkins … little leftovers of everything …”

And to set the bar even higher Pete Goffe-Wood also revealed that only two of the Top 5 contestants would be safe after this challenge – the three least impressive cooks would find themselves back in the black aprons for another Pressure Test.

“We don’t have a lot of food going around in our house most of the time, so most of our dinners are ‘get home, see what’s in the fridge, try and make something from it’,” Leandri shrugged philosophically as she set about to prepare a fish pie, toasted ciabatta with olive tapenade and some mushy peas to go with it.

But it was Ozzy who carried the day with his cornflakes-crumbed fish cake with “Indian” French toast, spicy fried sardines and braised cabbage with peas. He won an exciting MasterClass at the Dyer Island Conservation Trust at Gansbaai, outside of Cape Town!

Seline found herself totally thrown by this challenge and she was in helpless tears by the time she presented her open sandwich wrapped in bacon, with poached egg and tomato sauce. “I should not be putting out food like that!” she cried. “Not in the Top 5. Not even at home!”

The judges agreed, and Seline, Kamini and Jason were left to face off against each other in the next Pressure Test. Seline was just happy for one more chance to cook in the MasterChef kitchen. “And if it’s my last time I’ll be disappointed,” she declared, “but I’ll go out fighting.”

Images courtesy of MasterChef SA

It’s tough at the top as Kamini, Seline and Jason go into the MasterChef SA elimination challenge first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

In Tuesday’s episode of MasterChef South Africa Season 2 the Top 6 enjoyed an inspiring chat over tea with a culinary legend, South African-born Prue Leith, and 32-year-old former video store clerk Tiron Eloff had to bid his MasterChef dreams farewell.

Upon their return to the MasterChef kitchen after their long Ethiopian adventure, the Top 6 were surprised to see an impeccably set table waiting for them, laid with an exquisite array of cakes and pastries for tea, and even more astonished to be served tea by the remarkable Prue Leith, whose international culinary empire comprises two cooking academies, a Michelin-starred restaurant, one of the most highly-regarded catering companies in the U.K, a television programme, and numerous books.

Over tea and some sumptuous South African goodies like melktert, koeksusters and “vetkoek-and-mince”, Ms Leith told the Top 6 that she ascribes her success to being a South African. “Because South Africans are enthusiastic, generally, and keen to say yes, and generally ‘up for stuff’,” she declared.

For their Elimination Challenge Ms Leith challenged the Top 6 to turn any kind of iconic South African ingredients into a dish worthy of a Michelin star. “Maybe even two Michelin stars!”

Leandri, the 23-year-old scientist from Mahikeng, was especially inspired by Ms Leith’s tea-time encouragement and she presented an extraordinary composition of apricot and brandy ostrich fillet with roast sweetcorn sorbet, pea mash, and a “pampoen poffertjie”, or pumpkin fritter.

Chef Leith admitted that if someone had told her at the start of the challenge that one of the contestants would want to put six elements on the plate, she would have thought it was overly ambitious. “I was wrong!” she told Leandri. “It’s perfect!”

Leandri confided to the judges that Chef Leith’s example gave her a clear sense for the first time of how MasterChef can change her life. “Today I had that epiphany that I can create my destiny and my future from this journey in a really beautiful way,” she told them, and the famous guest chef was clearly equally inspired in turn. “That is one adorable girl,” she whispered to Pete as Leandri left the tasting room.

Unfortunately Tiron had a less successful day in the kitchen. He came up with a pan-seared medallion of venison with a biltong-and-rosemary crust, rooibos-infused sweet potato, buttered asparagus and a meebos red wine jus, but some lackluster plating and an under-reduced red wine sauce saw him having to hang up his apron.

But Tiron departed the MasterChef kitchen with a new vision for his future. “Just because I can’t be MasterChef doesn’t mean I can’t be a celebrity chef. A great chef … A Michelin star chef,” he resolved. “I just feel like a new person,” he said. “I just feel like whatever weights were holding me down before are gone.”

Images courtesy of MasterChef SA

A lackluster Tiron Eloff is the next to leave the MasterChef SA kitchen first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

In Wednesday’s dramatic episode of MasterChef South Africa, the Top 6 contestants were back in South Africa, but not yet back in the MasterChef kitchen on the Nederburg wine estate. Instead, they were headed for the Johannesburg suburb of Cyrildene and the heart of Johannesburg’s famous “Chinatown”!

Here they were introduced to Chef Chang An Song of the Tsogo Sun hotel group, who is famous for his traditional Peking Duck. Chef Andrew Atkinson explained that the Top 6 would be divided into two teams and they would compete in creating magnificent Asian-inspired dishes for a distinguished panel of Chinese food experts, headed up by Chef Chang An Song.

Chef Chang presented each of the Top 6 with fortune cookies which revealed which team they would be in: 22-year-old Cape Town student Jason was in the Blue Team with 34-year-old former video store clerk Tiron and 23-year-old Mahikeng scientist Leandri, and her sister, 25-year-old engineer Seline, and 22-year-old Johannesburg student Ozzy and 29-year-old Cape Town food blogger Kamini made up the Red Team.

Chef Pete explained that the teams had to create platter-style duck dishes using Asian flavours as their inspiration. They were provided with their primary protein ingredient, the duck, but they had to source the rest of their ingredients themselves from the little shops and street vendors dotted all across Chinatown. “Each team will have a budget of R1000,” he explained.

Ozzy announced that the Red Team would make five-spice duck breast, Chinese fried rice with duck eggs, and a Chinese cabbage with crispy duck neck and a sweet chilli sauce, and Tiron explained to Pete Goffe-Wood that his Blue Team planned to marinate duck neck in spices and garlic and coat it in rice-flour and deep-fry it in duck fat.

“It was a huge task for a team of three to take on, cooking for ten people, traditional Chinese food, where no-one was in their comfort zone,” Ozzy pointed out, and in the end the task proved too much for both teams. “The food that you presented today was abysmal,” Chef Pete chided the Top 6 at the end of the challenge. “Today, as far as I’m concerned, you are all losers.”

The Red Team’s dishes of sweet chilli and sesame duck with won-ton crisps, duck neck with honey, ginger and soy sauce, black fried rice, beans and cauliflower, and black sesame cabbage won the day and they got to visit South Africa’s first MasterChef winner, Deena Naidoo, for a master class at his restaurant Aarya.

The Blue Team served vegetable spring rolls with sweet-and-sour chilli dipping sauce, vegetarian Asian-style broth, honey-and-soy marinated duck with egg-fried rice, and bok choy with garlic and ginger, which ended up sending and Jason, Tiron and Leandri back to the MasterChef kitchen to fight it out in the Elimination Challenge.

Images courtesy MasterChef SA

Red Team cruise to victory leaving Tiron, Leandri and Jason to face the elimination challenge first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

Neil Lowe who had impressed in the early rounds and considered by many to be an early favourite has left MasterChef SA kitchen.

Neil, a 40-year-old visual communications consultant from Cape Town who loves molecular gastronomy ended up in the Elimination Round thanks to being on the losing Red Team in the #MCSA Episode 9 Food Truck Pizza Challenge.

This was Neil’s second elimination round after having to endure the experience in #MCSA Episode 6 in which he survived to claim a safe spot, he was not so lucky this time.

First up for Neil and the six other contestants, Jason Steel, Khumo Twala, Sanet Labuschagne, Leandri van der Wat, Karen Els and Joani Mitchell was a spice identification test.

Each of them were presented with several tasting plates and they had to correctly identify two spices or herbs used in each dish.

At each stage whoever correctly identified the correct spices or herbs would be safe until only three were left.

Leandri was the only person to correctly identify the first dish, being garlic and oreganum ensuring her survival in the competition.

The next two to scramble to safety were Joani and Khumo leaving the rest for fighting for one safe spot.

Neil and and Karen both guessed wrong and went into the elimination round leaving Jason and Sanet to battle it out for the last spot with Sanet winning it by correctly identifying both the dried parsley and the cayenne pepper.

The three talented cooks were tasked with replicating one of Chef Pete Goffe-Wood’s signature dishes, pan fried white stumpnose fish fillets with a fennel and saffron risotto and a nicoise salad on the side.

The key to this type of challenge is to replicate it as close as possible and on this occasion they were given the recipe.

The first pressure point in the dish was filleting their own fish and this was where Neil had his first setback with only one being good and the other just acceptable.

It really fell apart when it came to the risotto where he talked a good story but in reality had only made it once before and even then it wasn’t all that good.

What you want with risotto is you want perfectly-formed little grains of rice that have just absorbed the right amount of moisture and flavour
You don’t want to stir it too vigorously and break it.
You don’t want to let it dry out.
You don’t want to add too much liquid at any time so that it becomes soggy

When the judges tasted his dish they immediately zoned in on the risotto.

Pete explained that when you cook risotto “almost paella-style”, not stirring the rice, you run the risk of not releasing the saffron’s colour.

Chef Andrew complained that his portion of fish was slightly overcooked and that Neil’s risotto lacked the depth of flavour of Pete’s version.

Benny thought the dish wasn’t seasoned properly and Pete agreed. “The answer to that is taste, taste, taste, all the time,” he advised Neil.

Neil was rightly devastated, along with many of his fans;

I’m gutted.
Devastated.
So, so disappointed.

It is a sign of things to come as we whittle through the contestents, talented cooks will be going head to head in a battle of survival to become MasterChef.

Neil’s departure opens up an opportunity for the other contestants as he always appeared to be a strong contender but to be a MasterChef you have to be able to see your way through many cooking challenges and in Neil’s case risotto was surprisingly one challenge he could not overcome.

The moral of today’s story is “practice makes perfect risotto”.

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Watch a disappointed Neil Lowe in his exit interview

Shock elimination from MasterChef SA as Neil Lowe, the Science Guy heads for the exit door first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

In one of the most tense MasterChef SA challenges to date the contestants teamed up for the Food Truck Pizza Challenge to be judged by ten of South Africa’s top foodies.

It was the first time this season that the MasterChef hopefuls were split into teams which guarantees some of the early favourites will find themselves in an elimination round.

The very nature of the challenge and random team selection, they drew red or blue out of a dutch oven with only one team winning would result in someone who has thus far avoided an elimination round, thanks to their culinary skill, would now be at the mercy of how well they and their fellow team members perform as a unit.

If you have ever looked inside a restaurant kitchen that is exactly what you will see, a team working together to produce one plate of food, each responsible for a different component.

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On the Red Team; Leandri van der Wat, Jason Steel, Karen Els, Neil Lowe, Joani Mitchell, Sanet Labuschagne and Khumo Twala.

Herman was delighted with his team;

I’m pretty happy about the other people also choosing the Blue Team ’cause we’ve got Kamini which won the first challenge, we’ve got Ozzy which is our spice king, we’ve got Seline which is like, the sugar wizard.
I think we’ve got a very strong team and I think we can win this challenge.

On the Blue Team; Mary Martin, Tiron Eloff, Kamini Pather, Herman Cloete, Amanda Beck, Ozzy Osman and Seline van der Wat.

The fact that the Blue Team has some very strong cooks in it’s line up was not lost on Sanet but this was only going to spur the Red Team on;

I’m in the Red Team, we are so motivated, we’re so excited and because the other team has got the two team challenge winners in we’ve got such a point to prove.
We are so going to win it.

With that the two teams got stuck in to making two pizza’s, a mains and a dessert in some trying conditions.

A truck by it’s very nature is not designed to be a kitchen and conditions in the galley are cramped and claustrophobic, add to that seven cooks, a cameraman, an occasional judge and you’re not left with much room for the elbow grease.

I like small kitchens but they must have clean surfaces and limited wall fittings, a man needs his wing span.

To make matters even more trying once they were outside prepping the pizza’s for the oven the wind picked up, as it does in Cape Town, with Seline getting a smack in the face from a pizza box.

We are always guaranteed a ‘pic of the day’ from Seline, even if it is a little blurry…

The food bloggers had assembled from Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town and was a mini reunion for most.

While the contestants were battling away in the food trucks we were completely oblivious to all the goings on as we sat about 100 meters away next to the sewage works sipping on iced teas and sucking on ice creams.

When we finally got the call we displayed a complete lack of ability to adhere to the directors “direction” with the latter half of the blogging line up failing to sit in the correct spot, hence a slight lack of continuity in terms of the seating arrangements.

What little we understood about “direction” was soon made up when it came to the task at hand, judging the pizzas boxed up by the two teams.

The Red Team was up first with a Crispy Duck & Chorizo Pizza with Caramelised Onions and Aubergine.

The bloggers didn’t agree entirely with the duck, some thought it was a great component and well cooked while others were not to keen on it.

This was down to a lack of consistency in what was served, I would have preferred just the crispy duck skin, some of the slices of meat were too thick and left me chewing on the meat while the rest of the pizza bite had been swallowed.

If pizza ingredients could sing it would be “We all go down together…”.

Fritz Brand was mightily impressed with the duck;

I love the duck, it’s cooked beautifully, it’s nice and soft, it’s not chewy.

Ishay Govender-Ypma was in agreement with Fritz while Aubrey Ncgungama wasn’t;

The duck to me I think is actually just not right, its overcooked for a start.

On the whole it was a good combination of flavours and deserved the praise it received.

Next up was the Blue Team with a Chorizo & Buffalo Mozzarella Pizza with Chanterelle Mushroom Cream.

It was in a word, ‘boring’ with the only saving grace for some being the Chanterelle Mushroom Sauce while the biggest crimes being the size of the pizza and the fact that the base was burnt on some.

The best comment came from Luvo Nteo, Head Sommelier at the One & Only;

I would like to say something quite nice about it but it’s difficult, really.
I’m sorry.

There was one dissenter amongst the bloggers, Candice Le Noury who made it through to boot camp in season one of MasterChef SA, she voted for the Blue Team leaving the score 9-1 to Red after the first pizza.

Next up was the dessert pizza the concept of which tends to leave many people with a funny look on their face.

Dessert pizza’s are delicious as long as you get your priorities right, they are first and foremost a dessert and a pizza second, it is simply a delivery format.

What I found lacking on both teams pizzas was the amount of fruit, they had designed it to look like a pizza which meant a far too spacious arrangement when it came to the most valuable components.

With one bite I would have a piece of fruit and the next a mouthful of ganache, my view on this subject is to have more fruit if that is in fact the main component.

You wouldn’t expect a mouthful of fruit tart to simply consist of the base would you?

The Red Team presented a Creme Fraiche with Stone Fruit Pizza with Thyme infused white chocolate ganache.

The chocolate was burnt and let the entire pizza down, no other component could make up for this fatal error.

The moral of this story is spread the chocolate ganache on afterwards, it simply will not work if you put your pizza in a 400°C oven with chocolate spread on.

The Blue Team under severe pressure and somewhat deflated energy still managed to pull together and served up a magnificent Tiramisu Pizza with a Trio of Ganache, Creme Fraiche, Basil Coulis and Spun Sugar.

The Basil Coulis was a triumph which when we first read the menu left some of us concerned.

Once we tasted it however it pulled all the flavours on the dessert pizza together and lingered for a little while leaving everyone with a memorable food moment that will not be forgotten.

The Blue Team pulled back with a perfect 10 out of 10 to win 11-9 and send the Red Team into the #MCSA Episode 10 Elimination Round.

Neil Lowe, Leandri van der Wat and Sanet Labuschange have all been there before and this time will be joined by fellow team mates, Jason Steel, Joani Micthell and Karen Els.

The moral of the story is that with virtual unanimity in the food bloggers voting pattern they all know what they’re talking about, a triumph for South African bloggers.

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Images courtesy MasterChef SA

Biggest comeback ever on MasterChef SA as the basil coulis takes it for the Blue Team. first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

Seline and Leandri got the opportunity to share the experience of an elimination round together on MasterChef SA.

The day started badly for Leandri van der Wat when the judges announced the “identification challenge” was to be cheese.

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Say cheese!

The younger of the two sisters raised a chuckle from Pete Goffe-Wood in #MCSA Episode 7 when she revealed she did not like cheese and that to her it tasted like “rotten feet”.

Little did she know at the time what fate awaited her while the judges no doubt had a little giggle about it.

As they made their way through each of the cheeses, Sanet Labuschange was the first to find safety, followed by Mary Martin and Amanda Beck leaving the two sisters along with eventual loser Tumi Moche in the Pressure Test which was to replicate a Bouillabaisse.

A bouillabaisse is a traditional French fish broth which originated in Marseilles and presented quite a challenge to the two sisters.

Seline stuck to the basics when preparing her dish and got most of the ingredients correct but battled with getting the colour right.

This left her nervous and when it came time to present she was left a little rattled by the judges with the colour of her dish being of greatest concern.

Andrew Atkinson liked it, it was full of flavour but questioned whether it was what they set out to do.

Pete criticised the broth’s appearance but complimented her on how good it tasted saying;

You’ve found a nice middle ground with this challenge, you focused on a dish that had a number of elements and from the taste of this broth it’s evident you know how to cook.
Is it what we’re looking for

Seline is lacking confidence which is not a good sign, especially at this early stage in the competition and might be the reason why she’s found herself in two elimination rounds so far.

This lack of confidence being shown by Seline could well enhance her popularity amongst all the “Rescue Rangers” out there who are no doubt clambering up onto their horses to come to her rescue.

I’m not confident in the way that I cook and I think that at the moment that’s what is coming through in the kitchen, I just have to back myself.
Time to grow… hopefully not time to go

Glowing praise for Leandri’s bouillabaisse

Leandri out shone her sister especially having never cooked with most of the ingredients before; mussels, prawns, calamari and crayfish.

She knows what the basics are for a soup, celery, carrots and onions so got off to a good start but she found the challenge difficult;

It’s quite difficult make a dish not according to your taste but according to what you have tasted.
It’s really challenging.
This was a very difficult challenge.

All three judges were very flattering about Leandri’s dish going as far to say that is was better than theirs.

Benny said;

It comes as a surprise when you tell me that you’ve never actually done this before in terms of working with seafood.
Its light, its full of flavour its got the right balance and the seafood is cooked perfectly.

Pete was glowing but left some doubt in her mind;

There’s a beautiful depth of flavour to this.
Its delicious, it tastes of the fish its been cooked in.
Is it exactly the same… I’m not sure
I have an inkling its better… but is that what were after

Andrew concurred but like Pete left a little shadow of doubt;

That broth is full of body and flavour
They all marry together nothing overpowers each other and you can tell that you’ve concentrated on getting that right but the brief today was to make ours.

Leandri had all the elements on her plate and her broth was very delicate with the aromas coming together.

It was a close call between Seline and Tumi who both had elements missing from their plate but it was Tumi who would go as the relieved sisters continued their journey into #MCSA Episode 9 and The Food Truck Challenge where Gourmet Guys very own Andrew Lieber got to run the rule over this years contestants as a guest judge.

Images courtesy MasterChef SA

The van der Wat Sisters survive elimination round to cook again. first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

Tonight on MasterChef SA another will leave the kitchen as six contestants, including the sisters, go head to head in a battle for survival.

The fight for survival sees some familiar faces in Mary Martin, Tumi Moche and Seline van der Wat make their second appearances in only the second elimination round.

This time they are joined by Amanda Beck, Sanet Labuschagne and to raise the stakes even higher Seline’s sister, Leandri van der Wat.

We don’t know much about what awaits them other than they will have to use the most important weapon a chef has, his senses!

This we suspect means there will be an “identify the ingredient” challenge lined up for them.

They should not worry too much as last years winner Deena Naidoo was awful at these types of challenges.

MasterChef Episode 8 Preview, time to use your senses! first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

Leandri van der Wat must have been kicking herself after making the nicest tasting dish of the day but goes into the elimination challenge for not using one of the ingredients.

The Mystery Box Challenge on MasterChef SA is all about using the ingredients in the Mystery Box, not some of the ingredients but all of the ingredients.

Leandri discovered this truth when she presented the judges with a herb crusted chicken with baked ricotta and no capers.

Hmm… I don’t like cheese

When Leandri first lifted the mystery box she looked a little stumped later saying;

Strike one, I’ve never cooked bone marrow.
Strike two, I’m not a cheese eater and I don’t cook with cheese.

Immediately comparisons could be drawn with her sister Seline van der Wat’s dramatic sequence in the #MCSA Episode 4 Big Breakfast Challenge when she revealed she doesn’t like breakfast, doesn’t cook breakfast and does not eat breakfast.

Later she explained her “turophobia” due to it tasting like rotten feet which prompted Pete Goffe-Wood to wonder how she knows it tasted like rottern feet.

That was not the only challenge facing Leandri as she battled to keep composed and bring all her components together on the plate, admitting that presentation is not a strong point of hers.

It’s difficult to get so many components of a dish together
Everything starts getting out of hand.

It was in the final seconds of the time allocated for the challenge that it all fell apart for Leandri, the capers were there, right in front of her and she didn’t have time to get them on the plate.

The judges were ready, waiting and primed, she hoped that they would think that it was still good enough to see her through.

That was not to be with Pete saying;

The brief was to use all seven ingredients and you haven’t done so.
I’m disappointed, cause that’s going to cost you.
That’s the nicest dish I’ve tasted today.

To make matters worse the judges had tasted her dish after Herman Cloete who won the day’s challenge.

Her sister Seline’s head dropped in solidarity, the two girls are very close as they now go into the #MCSA Episode 8 Elimination Round together.

One of them might be leaving the kitchen as they face up against Mary Martin, Tumi Moche, Sanet Labuschange and Amanda Beck.

Leandri van der Wat cooks the nicest tasting dish of the day but still ends up in the elimination round. first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

The Top 16 MasterChef SA Finalists arrive at the MasterChef kitchen in Paarl for the very first time.

The finalists will be faced with an invention challenge and Pete Goffe-Wood warned them all that they need to put their “heart and soul into every challenge” thrown at them.

The show has been an unrivalled success thus far way surpassing expectations and last seasons show on a couple of levels.

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The first and most important is the culinary quality of the contestants that have been competing over the first four episodes with some talented cooks having to forgo their dreams of pursuing a career in food via the MasterChef kitchen and find another route.

There have been a couple exceptions when it came to culinary expertise, most notably Donovan presenting the judges with the worst dish in the history or MasterChef anywhere in the world… cigarette tobacco smoked chicken!

Poor Donavan explained that it was a technique that he’d seen somewhere…

Where? On a 1970′s Marlboro Man advert, sitting smoking his beans with his cigarette?

It tasted like… you guessed it… cigarettes!

Read more: How smoke meat on a braai.

The worst MasterChef dish ever… Cigarette tobacco smoked chicken

Some early departures may opt to return like Joani Mitchell has or find success by other means like Anel Potgeiter who after getting over the disappointment of bowing out at the boot camp stage in season one started her own blog, Life is a Zoo Biscuit and later that year won Dinner Divas, a television cooking competition for food bloggers.

Watch the full first season of Dinner Divas

Anel’s career in food has continued to blossom and those who did not make it on MasterChef SA this year should take note that all is not lost.

The Top 16 present us with an array of characters, we have Neil Lowe the “Science Guy” who has impressed all three judges, Andrew Atkinson in particular, with his food knowledge and ability to bring ingredients together in a way that reveals his understanding of them.

Tiron Eloff, the “Crying Guy”, who at every opportunity has shed a tear (not that he’s been the only one) has also impressed the judges as the video store clerk persues his dream of finding a career in food.

Many of the men on MasterChef SA this year have been guilty of ‘un-manly’ expressions of emoticons :’(

I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with guys crying, it’s just that we’d like to see a lot less of it even if it is creating a stir on twitter.

The show does have an offering for the “boy’s don’t cry” brigade in Seline van der Wat who is not only intelligent, caring and gorgeous but at times delightfully nutty, especially when things aren’t going her way, like using a little black magic to make sugar caramelise.

More drama from Seline during the breakfast challenge

She is accompanied by her beautiful younger sister Leandri van der Wat who keeps an eye on Seline and on occasion makes little excuses for her sisters behaviour.

Having the sisters on the show adds an extra special dimension as they will do absolutely anything for each other and are delighted to be sharing the journey… up to a point.

I have two sisters and I know that while loving and caring for each other is one thing, it’s not going to prevent a blow out at some stage and one we hope will be caught on camera

Click to view the full contestant gallery

Then we have Sanet Labuschagne who is one of the finest role models a person could have, who after 24 years of raising a family is doing this for herself and boy is she doing it.

She’s not only impressing the judges but she’s impressing herself too, amazed at some of the quality of the food she is putting out.

Sanet is definitely an early favourite for the title, inspiring many others in South Africa to pursue their dream at the same time.

Karen Els is another mother doing it for herself and having scraped through the early rounds is no doubt determined to make a full go of it.

Kamini Pather has also impressed, she has a steely, knowledgeable determination about her and regardless of whether she makes it through to the finals or departs this week she is going to be a famous foodie.

The second big change this year has been with the judges, Pete Goffe-Wood, Andrew Atkinson and Benny Masekwameng.

All three have had the advantage of hitting the ground running, they know exactly who they are on the show and have not needed any time to acclimatise.

Most importantly they have stopped dressing Andrew Atkinson as Mr Min and expertly avoided shots of him inspecting polished surfaces or polishing his buttons.

Andrew Atkinson inspecting the surfaces

Not everyone is going to get a mention here so if you’re a contestant, chill out, there’s plenty of cooking to do and Gourmet Guys has its eye on all of you.

For all the contestant profiles click here

Stay up to date with all the latest MasterChef SA news by subscribing to our MasterChef Newsletter and follow Gourmet Guys on Facebook and Twitter… a little to your right…

MasterChef SA Episode 5 Preview. It’s heart and soul time! first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

Leandri van der Wat kept pace with her sister Seline van der Wat all the way though the preliminary rounds of MasterChef SA with this Thai Corn Fritter recipe distinguishing herself well against all the other fritters that were making an appearance in The Mealie Challenge.

No sign of Lenadri during the episode so we will take that as a sign that her dish was neither top of the class nor bottom of the class.

More: MasterChef SA Recipes | Leandri van der Wat Recipes

Thai Style Corn Fritter Recipe with Guacamole, Herbed Crème Fraiche and Red Onion Marmalade | Leandri van der Wat first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

LEANDRI VAN DER WAT
AGE: 23
CITY: Pretoria
OCCUPATION: Masters Student

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This masters student in chemistry has postponed her studies to take part in MasterChef.

Originally Leandri went along to Cold Auditions to support her sister Seline, but both of their dishes were so good that they went through to audition for the judges in the Hot Audition rounds.

Leandri is passionate about Africa and does a lot of volunteer work around the continent.

She is obsessed with good coffee and her forte is making interesting jams from scratch.

More to follow…

Tweets by @This_is_Leandri

Leandri van der Wat | MasterChef SA Profile first appeared first on Gourmet Guys