A survey conducted by STR Global Hospitality research firm has found that Cape Town is the fourth most expensive accommodation city on the African continent, and is more expensive than Johannesburg!
Addis Ababa in Ethiopia was found to be the most expensive African city for Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* The price of petrol went up by 44 cents a liter at midnight, the increase being blamed on the weakening Rand, and increased demand for petrol in Europe and Asia, reports EWNews.
* The inaugural Ethiopian Airlines flight landed in Cape Town yesterday, the airline flying between Cape Town and Addis Ababa six Continue reading →
No matter what happens in the MasterChef SA Season Finale tomorrow evening, the choice of the Season 2 Masterchef SA winner will be controversial, if the outcry on Social Media about Kamini Pather being allowed through to Top 4 and Top 3 is anything to go by, even forcing M-Net to issue a media release about it!
Food blogger Kamini Pather was the clear leader until episode 24, rarely putting a foot wrong, and only landing up in two Pressure Tests. It is clear that her strength is creatively meeting cooking challenges, and that she is less good in having to replicate dishes of visiting chefs, which was her downfall in two episodes last week. She is seen to be aloof, some seeing this as arrogance. She was a winner of the bell, and Food and Wine Pairing Master Class at Nederburg, for the best Signature Sandwich in episode 5. She was the joint winner with Tiron Eloff of the Coffee Invention Test in Ethiopia 
and received a MasterClass in the Jemma Valley. Went into her first (Vegetarian) Pressure Test due to the injera challenge in Ethiopia in episode 21. Into the Pressure Test in episode 24 for her poor month-end dish. Poor performance in Gâteau Pressure Test, yet was (controversially) saved by the judges in episode 25. Poor performance in Richard Carstens’ Chocolate Handkerchief dish in episode 26, yet was saved again. In a video interview after episode 26 a very tearful Kamini admits that her early morning yoga is ‘working less and less’, and that ‘the volume of tasks’ required when replicating dishes ‘is freaking me out’. She has the highest number of votes from readers of our blog.
Sisters Landri and Seline van der Wat have won increasing viewer support, for their wonderful supportive relationship, for being smart, for their cooking skills (Seline for baking in particular), for how well-spoken they are, in often making Continue reading →
After 20 episodes, MasterChef SA Finalist Kamini Pather, believed by many to win Season 2 of the reality TV show, landed in a Pressure Test for the first time, and experienced what each of her fellow Finalists have sweated through more than once .already
The Finalists were still in Ethiopia, and last night’s episode was filmed at the Yaya Village long distance athletics training centre, especially built at high altitude (2700 meters above sea level) for long distance runners to practice for world events, located 11 km outside of Addis Ababa.
The episode (unusual for Season 2, but the norm for Season 1) had a challenge as well as the Pressure Test in the same episode. The challenge was making Ethiopian injera flatbread, which is made from teff flour, and the challenge was to make it perfectly round, and to get it out of the pan and onto a grass mat, and then to roll it. Contestants were Continue reading →