Last night’s episode 22 of MasterChef SA was a tough one, the Finalists being criticised by both the guests who were invited to evaluate the cooking, and by Chef Pete Goffe-Wood.  A surprise was seeing Chef Deena Naidoo, Season 1 winner of MasterChef SA,  back on the screen again!

Having returned from Ethiopia, the six Finalists and the judges made a stop in Johannesburg, at the new Chinatown in Cyrildene.  The first Chinese came to our country during the gold rush in the 1800’s.  Executive Chef Chang an Song from Tsogo Sun, one of the best Asian chefs in the country, Chef Benny Masekwameng said, demonstrated Peking Duck, one of the best known Asian dishes, which must be prepared over two days to be perfect.  It is on the list of the top 50 foods to eat before one dies, viewers were told.  He was very difficult to understand, and M-Net used subtitles to help viewers understand him.  He told the Finalists that one should make dishes with ‘love and passion‘.  The group was divided into two teams of three, based on the fortune cookie they selected, containing a red or a blue ribbon.  Each team received a budget of R1000 to buy ingredients other than the duck from the shops in Chinatown, and was only given some time ‘to strategise their dishes‘, and only 10 minutes to shop.  The teams were given 75 minutes to prepare a dish inspired by the East to be served on platters as dinner for ten guests.  It was evident that little upfront planning was done by both teams, the major focus being the shopping for the ingredients.

The Red team appeared to be led by Kamini Pather,  Ozzy Osman and Seline van der Wat taking direction from her.  Predictably, as he has done throughout, Ozzy said that he had never cooked duck before, and this time round he may not have been the only Finalist without experience.    The three Finalists had been in previous team challenges together, and felt comfortable with each other.  The dishes they prepared were duck neck, duck breast, vegetables, and black sticky rice.   Ozzy made the duck breast, and when cutting it to check it, Seline thought it was perfect being pink, while Kamini thought it was undercooked. The vegetables burnt, but Ozzy made a replacement dish with onions, cabbage, and garlic. Seline appeared irritated with Ozzy, and snapped at him once or twice.  All three team members looked very unhappy when they had completed their dishes.

The Blue team took their direction from Tiron Eloff, and Jason Steel was happy to be part of Tiron’s team, saying he ‘is my Bro’!  Leandri van der Wat seemed surprisingly submissive, and took her instructions from Tiron.   They had selected duck fat, duck eggs, duck neck, and duck breast.  Jason made a broth with vegetables, ginger, and a whole pack of duck stock, which made Chef Pete raise his eyebrows!  Leandri made the vegetable spring rolls, and a dipping sauce.  Leandri commented that they had not planned well enough for the dinner.  The tasks appeared well delegated amongst the three Finalists.  The duck neck was steamed before it was deep fried.  The spring rolls were cooked very quickly, and were browner than they should have been.  Tiron tasted one, and passed it, despite the dark colour.  Tiron was not happy with the duck neck, and eliminated it from the dishes to be served.  They served the guests honey and soy marinated duck breasts, Asian broth, vegetable spring rolls, and pak choi, also called Chinese cabbage.

The judges checked on the Finalist teams, and speaking amongst themselves, Chef Pete in particular was critical, saying that the duck necks should have been marinated first to soften them.  A further problem was that none of the Finalists had any experience in preparing duck in general nor necks specifically, which is ‘looking for trouble’, Chef Pete said.  Chef Andrew Atkinson added that he had noticed that the fat on the duck breast had not been rendered off by the Red team.  Chef Pete looked worried about the preparation of both teams.  The dinner guests included Emma Chen and her husband Colin, owners of the Red Chamber Restaurant in Hyde Park; Mr Li, one of the first Mainland Chinese to open a restaurant in Chinatown;  Chef Chang An Song;  Miss Chinese South Africa 2013, Sherry Wang;  and Erwin Pon, chairman of the Chinese Association of Gauteng.  One guest could not speak English at all, and his evaluation was translated.  The guests were very critical, finding fault with almost all the elements they were served:

*   the Blue team served their dipping sauce in too large a bowl, the broth was bland, the spring rolls were burnt and did not contain enough vegetables to make them round, the broth was markedly sour and had few vegetables, the sauce was very good, the duck breast was praised for the fat which had been retained on the skin, was tender, moist, and had balance.

*   the Red team was told by Chef Pete that its dishes were far closer to the brief, mainly focused on the duck,  The black rice is better known to be served as part of dessert and not as part of the main course, the duck neck was described as ‘rubbery‘ and ‘not cooked properly‘,  the duck breast was loved, the presentation had created ‘good looking food‘,  the dishes complemented each other, and the addition of black sesame seeds to the cabbage was heavily criticised.

Once the guests had left the Finalists received a dressing down from Chef Pete, with very harsh words. He said that he regretted praising how well they had done in Ethiopia, given how poorly they had done last night in serving ‘abysmal food‘, serving a bland broth, burnt spring rolls, and raw duck necks.  He said they were ‘all losers today’, and warned them to ‘get their game back on‘!  On Twitter it was commented that all six Finalists should go into the next Pressure Test.

The Red Team was announced as the winning team, each of the guests having voted by switching on a red or blue Chinese lantern, the red team being the first to receive 4 votes. It won the prize of a visit to Chef Deena Naidoo’s restaurant Aarya at Montecasino, which he had won as winner of Season 1, and which MasterChef SA Culinary Producer Arnold Tanzer reviewed harshly recently.  Ozzy, Kamini, and Seline were seen in their civvies without aprons for the first time, and even with a glass of wine on the table at the restaurant, to enjoy with Chef Deena’s winning butter chicken. Chef Deena was in his chef’s uniform, sharing his experiences of the past year with them.  He said that one needs to ‘find yourself at rock bottom to make yourself strong‘. One couldn’t help but feel that this was another marketing push by sponsor Tsogo Sun, especially as they are not offering a restaurant prize to the Season 2 winner,  the winner only receiving a five day holiday in the Seychelles from the hotel group.

Chef Benny Tweeted last night that this episode had demonstrated that Chinese food is not quick and easy to make.  Interesting was that a Standard Bank TV commercial flighted in the episode featured Haile Gebrselassie, the Olympic gold medal long-distance runner who was one of the two judges in Tuesday’s episode 21.  The preview of episode 23 showed that Chef Prue Leith, of the Chef’s Academy carrying her name in Pretoria, will be the focus of the episode.

For an overview of what is lying ahead for the rest of Season 2 read here. For behind the scenes information on the filming of Season 2 in January read here.  For an overview of episode 1 of Season 2 read here. For an overview of episode 2 of Season 2 read here, for episode 3 read here, for episode 4 here, episode 5 here,  episode 6 here,  episode 7,  episode 8, episode 9, and episode 10,  episode 11,  episode 12,  episode 13,  episode 14, episode 15, episode 16, episode 17, episode 18,  episode 19, episode 20, and episode 21 read here.  Enter our competition to predict which Finalist will win MasterChef SA Season 2.

MasterChef SA, Season 2. Tuesdays and Wednesdays 19h30 – 20h30.  www.masterchefsa.dstv.co  Twitter: @MasterChef_SA.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage