Tag Archives: Joani Mitchell

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 18: Chef Jackie Cameron wins cook-off against Tiron Eloff, Joani Mitchell spiced out by Bobotie!

MasterChef 2 18 Tiron and Jackie Whale Cottage PortfolioThe dishes prepared in last night’s episode 18 of MasterChef SA were extreme opposites, from international fine dining cuisine to a hearty local family dish.  No Immunity Pin was won, and likable Joani Mitchell was sent home.

The show started with the cooking duel between Tiron Eloff and Chef Jackie Cameron from Hartford House in the Natal Midlands, which Tiron had won in making the best Coconut dish in Tuesday’s episode 17.    The restaurant is an Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant regular, and Chef Jackie is beautiful, warm, and friendly, and it was a pleasure to meet her at the Eat Out gala dinner in November, sitting at the table with her and her Hartford House colleagues.  Chef Jackie was filmed at the hotel, and she showed off MasterChef 2 18 Jackie Cameron Whale Cottage Portfolioher vegetable garden, supporting locally sourced produce, and her policy is to not overcomplicate dishes.  For the cook-off she had made a Guineafowl dish with coq au vin gnocchi, roasted garlic, garden pea purée, seared mushrooms, oven-crisped Parma ham, and pecerino shavings. For the honour of participating in the cook-off, Tiron was allowed to wear a MasterChef SA jacket with his name on it, and he said that he could get used to wearing it.  He looked very Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 17: Judges nuts about most coconut dishes, Tiron Eloff Coconut King!

MasterChef 2 17 Fruit Whale Cottage PortfolioAn unusual Taste Test, which sounded easier than it was, was the start to episode 17 of MasterChef SA last night, when the nine Finalists were each given a bowl of fruit and some juices to taste and identify.  This led to a Challenge using a fruit, with a winner of the Challenge potentially winning an Immunity Pin, and three Finalists going into the Elimination Test tonight.

We have seen Taste Tests on MasterChef SA before, but never with the Finalists blindfolded.  Once they had identified the fruits on the basis of taste, smell, and touch, they had to hold up the whole fruit from the bowl for the judges to see. An avocado, plum, strawberry juice, grape juice, and red currant were the correct fruits tasted. Ozzie Osman won the taste test, being the last remaining Finalist, having correctly MasterChef 2 17 Ozzy blindfold Whale Cottage Porfolioidentified all five fruits.  The prize was that he was allowed to choose one of three fruits as the core ingredient for the Invention Test, going into the Pantry with Chef Benny Masekwameng to choose between coconuts (whole, desiccated, milk, cream), peaches (fresh, dried, preserved), and figs (dried, fresh, preserved).  He chose coconuts, saying they are part of his culture.  The winner of the Invention Test would go into a cook-off against one of South Africa’s top chefs and should he/she win, an Immunity Pin would be won which would offer immunity Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 16: ‘Quirky’ cooking, Mucking Afazing Charly’s Bakery, Khumo Twala flaps out!

MasterChef 2 16 Pressure Test Finalists Whale Cottage PortfolioThe Pressure Test that five Red Team MasterChef SA Finalists, who lost the cook out in the Company’s Gardens in Cape Town yesterday, had to go through seemed less stressful and more fun than some of the others the Finalists have been through, in that they could let their creativity shine through.  The winning Blue Team loved their visit to Charly’s Bakery in Cape Town.

The visiting Chef and ‘Bread and Butter’ column food writer for The Times MasterChef 2 16 Chef Andrea Burgener Whale Cottage Portfoliowas Andrea Burgener of The Leopard (no website for her restaurant, it appears) in Melville in Johannesburg,  Chef Pete Goffe-Wood calling her the ‘Queen of Creative Cuisine’, well known for her creative cooking, eclectic and playful dishes created by experimentation, and tasty food.  She presented three of her dishes, to give the Finalists an idea of what her restaurant serves, each dish having a twist on something well known, being ‘far removed from their origins’, she said.  So, for example the steak tartare was presented on a Moroccan theme, and there was a ‘Korean spagbol‘,  and MasterChef 2 16 SpagBol Whale Cottage Portfolioa Gazpacho made with raw ginger.  Textures are important, it was said, and Chef Andrea’s flavours ‘jump out‘.    Chef Andrew MasterChef 2 16 Gazpacho Whale Cottage PortfolioAtkinson provided the brief for the Pressure Test:  the Finalists had to create a dish of their own creation within 60 minutes, thinking out of the box, to be good enough to feature on Chef Andrea’s menu at Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 15: Blue Team cooks Red Team under the Table (Mountain)!

MasterChef 2 15 Table Mountain Olympic chefs Whale Cottage PorfolioWhat a beautiful setting the Company’s Garden and backdrop Table Mountain was to last night’s episode 15 of MasterChef SA, fantastic marketing of Cape Town to the rest of the country’s TV viewers!   The Red and Blue Teams had to prepare a dish reflecting our country’s cultural food heritage, and the scoring was pretty close, or so the viewers thought!

Having won the Best Dairy Dish Challenge in episode 13, Kamini Pather was allowed to choose her team of five for the next challenge, as well as the apron colour,  when the box of aprons was delivered to the Finalists’ house. She chose the colour blue, and the two van der Wat sisters Seline and Leandri, Ozzy Osmond and Jason Steel for her team.  Amanda Beck and Karen Els appeared to be in charge of the Red Team, which consisted of Khumo Twala, Joani Mitchell, and Tiron Eloff too.   The team challenge was to make a dish that would reflect the origin of our country’s culinary heritage dating back to 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck planted the Company’s Garden to serve as a halfway house trading station of fresh foods for ships of the Dutch East India Company travelling between Holland and the Far East.  The South African Culinary Olympic Team, which participated in the Culinary Olympics 2012 in Germany, and returned with 12 medals for our country, was invited as judges.  We recognised Chef Tanja Kruger Continue reading →