Tag Archives: Herman Cloete

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 12: Cape Town food focus, Karen Els creams it, tearful Sanet Labuschange pops out!

MasterChef 2 12 Cloche Whale Cottage PortfolioLast night’s episode 12 kept viewers glued to the screen, as Finalists Sanet Labuschagne, Tiron Eloff, and Jason Steel had to replicate La Mouette Chef Henry Vigar’s dish. Karen Els enjoyed her special MasterClass at The Creamery.

Chef Henry Vigar of La Mouette was the ‘top Cape Town chef‘ viewers were told would be present in the episode, and whose dish they had to replicate.  When Chef Pete Goffe-Wood introduced the chef as being a good friend, that it is his favourite restaurant, and that the chef is from the UK and has a South African wife, and has worked at top UK restaurants, we could not help but think that it was Chef Luke Dale-Roberts from The Test Kitchen and the Pot Luck Club, as the description could have equally applied to him.  As MasterChef 2 12 Chef Henry Whale Cottage PortfolioChef Henry has not made the Eat Out Top 20 list since he opened in Cape Town three years ago, it was a surprise that M-Net overstated his standing, as he is very low key on the Cape Town restaurant scene.  Kamini Pather said that the restaurant is best known for its six course tasting menu.  La Mouette was a favourite of ours when it opened, but we have not been for a long time, due to poor service, even from the owners. Chef Henry’s dish was Salt and pepper prawns, chorizo popcorn, tamarind sauce, and shaved radish on sweetcorn purée. The task was to replicate Chef Henry’s dish exactly and to make four exact portions of it. Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 11: Some Finalists bite off more than the judges can chew, Karen Els transforms into a butterfly!

MasterChef 2 11 Meat Whale Cottage PortfolioLast night’s episode 11 of MasterChef SA was a very meaty one, with the full range of Woolworths meat cuts being available to the 13 Finalists for a spectacular dish they had to make, with beef as the hero. Some dishes were highly praised, others were mis-steaks mainly related to the amount of time needed for the cooking, and others did not meet the challenge brief, in playing it safe.

Chef Benny Masekwameng introduced the challenge, and described the cultural tradition of slaughtering a cow for special occasions and celebration.  On the first day, one would serve the innards as a welcome dish.  On day 2 the whole carcass would be prepared for the main feast, while on day 3 the head and trotters would be served, he explained,   The Woolworths range of meats included fillet, sirloin, pickled tongue, boerewors, biltong, mince, shin, oxtail, and sausages.  The Finalists had ten minutes to grab their ingredients from the Pantry,  and were given 90 minutes within which to prepare their dishes.  The creator of the best dish would win a personalised MasterClass, while the bottom three Finalists would have to go into the Pressure Test. Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 9: ‘Food Bloggers’ blown away by pizzas in windy Camps Bay!

Camps Bay 2 Wild JunketLast night’s episode 9 was interesting, in that it was shot away from the MasterChef SA kitchen, and that ten ‘Food Bloggers’ were invited to judge the pizzas made by two teams of Finalists, the first team challenge of Season 2.  The South Easter created havoc for the Finalists as well as for the bloggers. The ‘Blogger’ participation was a huge let down, and serving the guests pizza to judge was an insult.

The episode began with the Finalists descending on the kitchen of their house, to be confronted with a box of aprons and the instruction to divide themselves into two groups of seven.  The names were written on pieces of paper, and a Le Creuset pot served as the vessel from which the names for the two teams were drawn.   They were then driven to Maiden’s Cove, between Camps Bay and Clifton, a parking space with a beautiful view of Camps Bay and the Twelve Apostles, Chef Pete Goffe-Wood saying that Camps Bay ‘is one of the iconic locations in Cape Town‘.    The challenge sounded simple –  Limoncello and The Good Life Food Trucks arrived, and the two teams were randomly allocated a truck each as their home base to prepare 12 savoury and 12 dessert pizzas each within 90 minutes.  Pizza ovens had been erected, one per team, and a small pantry was set up, the two team representatives having 3 minutes in which to grab their ingredients.  Chef Andrew Atkinson reminded the Finalists that team work is the hallmark of a quality kitchen.  They were also told (misleadingly) that the guests were ’10 of South Africa’s top food bloggers‘, and ‘are discerning customers‘!  Chef Pete won the dessert pizza section of an international pizza competition in Australia last year, the Finalists were told. Continue reading →

MasterChef Season 2 episode 8: Cheese tasting leads to Bouillabaisse Pressure Test, Tumi Moche gets the chop!

MasterChef 2 8 Bottom 6 Pressure Test Whale Cottage PortfolioAfter chickening out in episode 7, six of the fifteen Finalists had to go into the Pressure Test, one of them having to go home, being Tumi Moche, probably a hard choice for the judges, as the Bouillabaisse that the bottom three had to prepare was praised by them.  Herman Cloete enjoyed his plating MasterClass at Restaurant Mosaic.

The Test episode started with a cheese tasting, four Woolworths cheeses presented to each of the six Finalists, to be looked at, smelt, andMasterChef 2 8 Camembert Whale Cottage Portfolio tasted. Leandri van der Wat was devastated, as she had already shared in the previous episode that she hates cheese, and never cooks with it nor eats it.  They were given cottage cheese, gorgonzola, feta, and camembert to taste and identify.  Amanda Beck, Mary Martin, and Sanet Labuschagne were released from the Pressure Test in getting most of the cheeses correct, leaving Tumi, and the sisters Leandre and Seline van der Wat, to go into the Pressure Test. Continue reading →