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 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

Kamini Pather confirms her “favourite” status as she wins her second MasterChef SA challenge.

In tonight’s episode of MasterChef South Africa, the contestants woke up to a house that was missing a vital ingredient from their kitchen! “I’m minding my business – all I want is my cup of coffee to start the day, that is how I start every day,” Leandri van der Wat, the 23-year-old scientist from Mahikeng, grumbled, but this morning there was no milk to be found in the MasterChef house … Might it be some indication as to the day’s Invention Test?

“The first thing that pops into my mind is we’re going to milk cows!” laughed Mary Martin, a professional dancer from Johannesburg. And so, without a caffeine-boost to start their day, the Top 12 set off to the MasterChef kitchen to face their challenge: a Dairy Invention Test!

Chef Benny Masekwameng explained that the contestants could find all different types of milk, cream, cheese and yoghurts in the pantry with which to create either sweet or savoury dishes. “It can be anything from starters, main course, or delicious desserts,” he instructed. “If dairy’s going to be the hero of the dish, it’s probably going to be a dessert,” said Herman (34), the electrician from Witbank, but he reflected that dessert was not exactly his strong suit.

Benny explained that the contestants would have 60 minutes to create dishes in which dairy plays an integral part, and they would only get ten minutes in the pantry. “I’m definitely going to make ice cream!” said Karen, who had won the ice cream MasterClass at The Creamery in the previous challenge.

Amanda Beck, the 30-year-old recruitment consultant from Cape Town, had the great idea of doing samoosas stuffed with fruit and cheese with some crème fraiche ice cream on the side, but she also took some phyllo pastry from the pantry, just in case her plan went awry. And the baby of the competition, 19-year-old student Khumo Twala, planned to make a crème patisserie tart and a dark chocolate mousse but then, just as Chef Andrew closed the pantry, she realised she’d forgotten to take eggs!

But Khumo wasn’t the only contestant who forgot ingredients – Amanda forgot to get oil to fry her samoosas, so she decided to fall back on her standby phyllo pastry and to make a lemongrass-infused crème patisserie with a cherry compote instead.

Leandri, who was so grumpy about foregoing her caffeine-fix that morning, decided to make something with tea: an Earl Grey crème brûlée and her own version of a Chai Latté, with some plums poached in rooibos, chili and mint. Meanwhile her sister Seline (25), the Mahikeng engineer, also chose a dish based in tea: an Earl Grey tea panna cotta with white chocolate ganache and a deep-fried chocolate truffle. “Today I feel okay with who I am and what I’m doing,” she remarked happily.

22-year-old Joburg student Ozzy Osman wanted to make an orange-and-lemongrass panna cotta with a ginger-and-date baklava, but unfortunately his panna cotta turned out to be more of a “panna puddle”, because it didn’t set, and Chef Pete also didn’t like his baklava, which he explained didn’t cook properly because Ozzy layered it too thickly. “I was really upset with myself,” a crestfallen Ozzy admitted.

Khumo also had a bad day in the kitchen. After forgetting to bring eggs out of the pantry she presented a Duo of Chocolate Mousse that she made with cream, but which the judges simply didn’t like. “When something goes wrong it goes way, way wrong. This is just not good enough,” Pete told Khumo sternly.

On the plus side Pete thought Seline’s Earl Grey Tea panna cotta with “drunk cherries” was the best dish she had presented so far in the competition and the judges also raved over 29-year-old Cape Town food blogger Kamini’s Mixed Spice and Cinnamon Panna Cotta with Deconstructed Apple-and-Pancetta Crumble. “The panna cotta, light … creamy … Then you get the smokiness of the pancetta … the sweetness of the apple and the crunch … that soothing, sweet, but still lots of flavour in that sauce …” Benny swooned, and Pete just flat-out declared it to be the best plate of food that they had tasted in the whole competition.

With that triumph Kamini once again emerged the winner and she won the privilege of choosing her team for the next Team Challenge. But for Herman, Mary, Khumo, Ozzy and Amanda the day ended with the spectre of another Elimination Challenge looking over them. “I never want to feel like this ever again,” Ozzy admitted. “I want to be at the top of the class.”

“I’m a fighter. I’m going to fight until I walk out those doors,” Mary vowed.

Kamini Pather wins her second challenge on MasterChef SA 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.

Subscribe to our MasterChef SA Newsletter for all the latest news or follow us on Twitter and Facebook, a little to the right and up a bit.

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

Ozzy Osman always seemed to be surprised with his success each round he progressed, just as with this Tortilla Nachos Recipe with Spicy Corn Salsa and Spicy Squid Wrap during the Mealie Challenge in episode 3 of MasterChef SA.

This was the first time that Ozzy was making nachos out of tortilla wraps and he wasn’t to confident about it.

Usually I like working under pressure but this kind of pressure was a bit too much.

Andrew warned him that everything on the plate needs to be cooked through.

His presentation was not too good and Ozzy knew saying that he hoped the taste would be better than the presentation.

Andrew Atkinson said;

The presentation does help with the taste but its all about the flavour.
The tortilla are crispy and the top end I think you’ve got it right with the flavour.

And Ozzy continued on to the Big Breakfast Challenge.

More: MasterChef SA Recipes | Ozzy Osman Recipes

Tortilla Nachos Recipe with Spicy Corn Salsa and Spicy Calamari Wrap | Ozzy Osman first appeared first on Gourmet Guys

OZZY OSMAN
AGE: 22
CITY: Johannesburg
OCCUPATION: Student

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Mohammed (Ozzy) likes to hang out with his family and friends, to play golf and of course, to cook!

This accounting student developed his passion for cooking from his terrible culinary experiences in boarding school.

The food was so bad that he simply decided to take matters into his own hands and cook for himself and all of his friends.

Ozzy loves seafood and always wanted to become a chef, but studied accounting. MasterChef is Ozzy’s chance to follow his heart’s true passion.

This soft spoken guy is a creative dynamo, and never ceases to surprise the judges with his skill.

More to follow…

Tweets by @oh_so_ozzy

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