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Written by In a gruelling final Ultimate Braai Master challenge Who Dares Wins “Braai Master”, Laertes “Tubby” Melidonis with Elaine Ensor-Smith swept past the opposition to take the title.
It was a testing challenge as the braai masters had to spend the day braaing 7 different meals for special guests who each brought their own ingredients and the contestants had to prepare a meal for them based on what they brought.
But there was a twist, the guests were all past Ultimate Braai Master contestants and each brought a variety of ingredients with which the braai masters had to prepare a feast for them and their guests.
They only had one hour to prepare each meal, if they went past the hour mark it would be disqualified from the judging process and valuable points lost.
Tubby & Elaine planning each meal meticulously, with Elaine as his braai buddy Tubby could not go wrong
It was not just the day’s braaing that was taken into consideration either but the judges looked back over the course of the whole competition when it came to choosing the winner.
Marthinus said that it was very close and came down to a few points between the winners and the runners up.
There was no question about braai buddy Elaine Ensor-Smith being the power behind the throne, she has been a sterling performer throughout the show and grew with each episode.
She thanked Marthinus Ferriera for that
The words that Marthinus spoke to me one night, will sit with me for the rest of my life and I believe that’s why we’re here.
So I would like to thank Marthinus for that actually because it was really coming out of my shell and doing what I know I can do but he’s behind it.
So I’m really grateful
Tubby said,
We’ve come so far since the Orange river, we’ve come a million miles not 8000 km
Braai’s will never be the same at our house
Lee and Roger would occasionally add some spice to the show but only when they were not shouting at each other. When they were it just became uncomfortable
But that was not the only surprise of the night as the top three teams colluded together and agreed to share the winnings with 20% going to the runners up and therein lies the fundamental problem with Ultimate Braai Master which has plagued it all through the series.
Everybody is so bloody nice and buddy-buddy which is great for those competing in the show who are enjoying a lekker time cruising around the country braaing but it does not make for gripping television drama. The show lost a little of that when Oscar Foulkes left as he had the innate ability to ruffle peoples feathers
If the producers of Ultimate Braai Master wanted the runners up to win cash prizes then they should have offered them as part of the deal and not leave it up to the contestants to start making their own terms and conditions. They also need to find a way to spice things up a bit, the biggest shows on TV are filled with conflict and drama, water cooler talking points around which more and more people are attracted to watch each episode.
The show is a great concept but at times was too slow and anti-climatic, even when it came to the end it was not the winner that was announced but the two runners up, Roger and Greg.
But most important of all for season 2, no more screen shots of Justin about to burst into tears!
Justin Bonello about to burst into tears… again!
