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Written by Sarel Loots bids farewell to the MasterChef SA kitchen.
It has been a good run for the man from Sabie as he said his final farewell to the MasterChef SA kitchen in episode seventeen of the cooking competition.
He has no doubt achieved more than he ever dreamed possible and his consistency in the kitchen allowed him to reach the Top 4 in the series.
In this weeks instalment the contestants finally got the chance to show off their talents with a Mystery Box and had to come up with a dessert that would impress not the judges but their wives, husband and mother.
It was a nice twist to the series which ensured much emotion from the final four as they saw their loved ones for the first time since beginning their adventure.
Sarel prepared an Amarula spunge cupcake.which went down well with his wife, Lieze and Manisha’s husband Thoneshan, who said it had a delicate balance between the soft sponge, the crunchy bits and spun sugar. Sue-Ann Allens mother, Gail thought it was good, because it wasn’t “sickly sweet”.
It was not good enough though to avoid a pressure test as Deena Naidoo stormed to the top of the class again with a chocolate fondant with crème anglaise and grilled pear that got the thumbs up from three of the family judges.
It was up to Pete Goffe-Wood, Andrew Atkinson and Benny Masekwameng to decide who the bottom two were that would be facing an elimination challenge and it was Sarel and Sue-Ann, pear tart with Chantilly cream and Amarula reduction, who lost that decision with Manisha Naidu making it through to the final three with her poached pear with Amarula custard and puff pastry biscuit.
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For the elimination challenge the pair had to reproduce a Peter Templehoff creation, a Roast duck with hazelnut milk gel, confit duck pastilla and honey roasted figs.
Peter Templehoff is the executive chef at The Greenhouse in Cape Town, rated the top restaurant in South Africa for 2011.
It was a very technical challenge with lots of fiddly bits, in particular the duck spring roll wrapped in potato strings and the hazelnut gel.
It proved to be a challenge too far for Sarel as his omitted a key ingredient, the hazelnut milk gel and that pretty much was his downfall.
