Tag Archives: Gordon Ramsay

MasterChef SA Season 2 controversial final week: what lies ahead in episodes 27 and 28?

September 10, 2013

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 →

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 26: Leandri van der Wat scientifically shot into Finale! Ozzy Osman out on ‘flying carpet’! Kamini Pather hangs in there!

September 5, 2013

The viewers’ blood is boiling, in that Finalist Kamini Pather was given a second chance two nights running in episodes 25 and 26, to hang in at MasterChef SA, given that she clearly was the weakest performer in both the episodes. The episode was an exciting one, however, showing the diversity of the Finalists in being able to recreate something as difficult as Chef Richard Carstens’ Chocolate Handkerchief dish, consisting of eleven elements.

The Final Four were given black aprons on arriving at the MasterChef SA kitchen, being in a Pressure Test, without deserving it as such. They noticed technical equipment they had never seen before on their workstations, including gloves, goggles, palette knives, and nitrogen guns. They also noticed an unnamed white jacket hanging in the kitchen. They were told that the judges were turning up the heat, and that they would face the toughest challenge. The winner would go directly into Wednesday’s Finale, while the person preparing the weakest dish would be eliminated.

Seline van der Watt reacted by saying that she would ‘put all on the line today and go for it’. Ozzy Osman said cleverly that he would rather have the jacket than have to fight over it later in the series. Leandri van der Wat said practically ‘Let’s cook’, looking forward to the challenge! Kamini said that she felt calmer, after losing her nerves in episode 25, when her Lemon Meringue Gâteau was less than perfect, and she cried Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 24/25 August

August 25, 2013

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* The Free World Design Centre in Cape Town is hosting trendtalk#6 on 3 September, with the theme ‘the colour of the times’. It forms part of National Colour Week, which runs from 1 – 7 September. Key presenters will share the latest design and décor trends. Entry is free of charge. The trendtalk#6 speaker panel includes journalist Les Aupiais, fashion stylist Catherine Bowen, and colour trend forecaster Anne Roselt. (via media release from Free World Design Centre)

* The Table Mountain Cableway re-opens tomorrow, after a five week closure.

* Checkers has launched its second Gordon Ramsay and Nataniël TV commercial, now Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 14: Chef David Higgs’ Macaroon and Panna Cotta dish the final crunch for Herman Cloete and Mary Martin!

July 25, 2013

The Macaroon, sorbet, and Panna Cotta dessert, which top Chef David Higgs of Five Hundred restaurant at the Saxon Boutique Hotel prepared for the Pressure Test on MasterChef SA’s 14 th episode last night, was a tough one to replicate, and cost two of the Finalists their aprons in the competition, the final 10 being whittled down to the winner in the next six weeks.

Chef David was introduced by Chef Pete Goffe-Wood as one of our country’s top chefs, who was named as Top Chef and Rust en Vrede Top Service and Top Restaurant in Eat Out’s Top 10 Restaurant Awards in 2010. Chef David introduced his dish, which he said he had made with one of the country’s top pastry chefs, but the name was not mentioned. He said that dining is more than about food, and preparing food for it can be tricky and technical too. A chef is more than just someone cooking, he or she is an artist too. His dessert of liquorice macaroon with a litchi sorbet and litchi panna cotta on black crumble was exquisite in its presentation. The Finalists were warned to follow the recipe carefully. A macaroon must be crunchy on the outside, yet soft and chewy on the inside. It’s all in the timing, he added. His dish ‘is difficult but not impossible’, he said. The five Finalists in the Pressure Test had 2 hours in which to replicate the dish, and Chef Pete made the shock announcement that two Finalists would be eliminated. In doing the rounds at the work stations, Chef David had a kind word for each Finalist, telling them to ‘relax’, and to ‘not get carried away‘, i.e. to not be nervous. Continue reading →