Lungi Nhlanhla | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

Last night’s episode 13 of MasterChef South Africa was a spicy one, set on the spice islands of Zanzibar, and its strong colours of fruit, seafood, the ocean, and markets was a joy to watch. It was an action-packed episode, with the eight Finalists divided into two teams, and the losing team having to identity spices in their raw state. This brought Deena Naidoo and Thys Hattingh into the Pressure Test, and sadly Thys had to leave the MasterChef SA kitchen. A queasy Khaya Silingele announced her pregnancy.

A traditional Zanzibar box with red and blue nails was the means whereby the Finalists were divided into the Red and Blue Team. The Red team appeared led by Ilse Nel, and she had an all-girl team of Khaya, Lungi Nhlanhla, and Manisha Naidu. The Blue team seemed led by Sue-Ann Allen, with the ‘boys’ Thys, Deena, and Sarel Loots. They were shown a typical market stall of Fisherman George, and his table had shrimps, calamari, marlin, masala spices, tandoori prepared foods, coconut and garlic breads, corn and banana plantin, and more. The food is prepared on hot coals, and the colours are beautiful, said Sarel.

They were given the challenge to go to the historic Stone Town markets, to buy ingredients with 300000 Tanzanian shillings (just under R1600), and make dishes for 50 persons that would be bought by the public and tourists. The team which made the lesser amount of money would go into a spice identification test. The market was praised for being organised, the stalls having scales, which allowed for accurate measurement and charging, Khaya said. Sarel said that the visit to the markets had ‘accelerated my thinking about food, with its exotic spices’. They bought bananas and pineapples, but it was when Khaya went to the fish section of the market that the smells overcame her, and she had to leave, feeling queasy. Her Red team mates bought (yellow fin, qualified by Chef Pete Goffe-Wood) tuna, chicken, fillet, and squid, and decided to bake its own bread. They were confident about their ‘girl charm‘ making its magic, Ilse said. They set up stalls in the Forodhani Gardens night market. The Red team offered its customers chickpea falafel, tuna skewers, mango salsa and chapattis, coleslaw, squid in Zanzibar spices, and spicy mango chicken. The Blue team had a similar set of dishes in mind, mainly making kebabs and shawarmas. Sue-Ann said they did not want to make too much food, offering mango, watermelon slices, and corn fritters made by Thys. The Blue team also sold beef two ways with chapatti, tuna skewers, chicken Tikka, kebabs, and corn bread Sarel was the team’s marketer, calling the customers to their stall, while Khaya did the same for her Red team. The Blue Team increased the price of its shawarmas, as they sold so well, but in the end started discounting prices the closer it got to the 10 pm closing time, needing to sell all their food, and make the most money. The Red team sold juice, which Khaya made with a sugar cane machine, a tough job, copied by the Blue team, when it saw how popular the juice was. The Red team appeared to have the longer queue, and the customers said that they were ‘working hard‘. Both teams enjoyed the experience, and Manisha said that it was the ‘best challenge so far’. It was the Red team (218000 Tanzanian shillings) that beat the Blue team (74880 Tanzanian shillings) in its income.

The Blue Team had to identify Zanzibar spices in their raw form, and Deena seemed confident that he would do well. However, the spices looked quite different in their raw state. Vanilla and turmeric were correctly identified by all four, but the cloves were incorrectly identified by Deena and Thys, sending them into the Pressure Test. Chef Jussi Husa, a Swede who arrived in Zanzibar fifteen years ago, and from one of the top Zanzibar resorts Essque Zalu, showed the two Finalists his lightly smoked and cured swordfish sashimi with papaya and palm hearts, crispy seaweed, and squid ink aioli. They were given 70 minutes to replicate Chef Jussi’s dish.

Deena said that he had not smoked and cured food much, but that he wants to stay in the competition because of his love for food. He felt confident, and said he would give his best. The judges spoke about him, saying he knows and follows the process, and appeared calm. Deena praised MasterChef SA, in that ‘everyone gets an equal opportunity’. Deena acknowledged that correctly smoking and curing his fish was the most important, and that there would be ‘no room for recovery’ should he make a mistake. Talking amongst themselves, the judges noticed that he had not put the lid onto his smoker properly, which would oversmoke it, and he was distracted by focusing on the other elements of the dish. He asked sadly:“Is this the end, because I oversmoked it ?”. Deena looked worried when he presented his dish to the judges, and the judges were silent initially. Chef Andrew Atkinson said the salad was cut perfectly, and the belly cold smoked. Chef Benny Masekwameng said that for never having smoked or cured fish before he had ‘done a great job‘. Chef Pete was very critical, saying that he had overdone the smoking, taking away all its delicacy, and no flavour nuances or lemon could be tasted.

Thys said that he would give Deena a ‘good run for his money’. He warned himself to not overcook the fish. The judges felt that he looked more pressurised. Thys said that ‘only the best is good enough today’, but that it would be hard to do perfectly. When he cut his fish, Thys said that it had cooked through completely. When Thys presented his dish to the judges, he looked proud and confident. Chefs Benny and Andrew praised the dish, saying it resembled Chef Jussi’s ‘masterpiece’, ‘the squid is just right‘, and ‘the seaweed is nice and crispy‘. Chef Pete had a completely different view, saying that the fish was meant to be cold-smoked and not cooked. The papaya for the salad was meant to be cut into small strips, but looked as if done by ‘Edward Scissorhands‘, he added!

Thys was eliminated and sent home, but praised, being told: ‘you are rich’ and was told to ‘keep the dream going’. Thys responded by saying that he would ‘do this 100 times over’, he had enjoyed it so much.

POSTSCRIPT 13/6: In Chef Benny’s Sunday Times column last weekend, he wrote that he was disappointed that the ‘food did not live up to the spice capital of the continent. The food we ate had a mild flavour although they use a lot of the same spices we use in our cooking‘. He also wrote that he felt lucky to not have had to identify the spices in their natural form, as the Red Team had to! He praised Sarel for his knowledge of spices. He signalled out Bobotie as a typical South African dish with a mixture of spices giving it its unique flavour. He wrote that ‘spices are the foundation of the dish‘.

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

The highlight of my week two weeks ago was being able to sit down with Chef Benny Masekwameng, one of the three MasterChef SA judges, and Tsogo Sun Executive Chef. He is incredibly nice, and overwhelmed about how his own career and life has changed since participating in MasterChef SA, much like that of the Finalists.

Chef Benny was in Cape Town for the official launch of the Southern Sun rebranding to Tsogo Sun, which was held at The Cullinan hotel. Previously Executive Chef of the MondoVino restaurant at Montecasino in Johannesburg, Chef Benny has been promoted to Executive Chef, responsible for promoting all the restaurants at the Tsogo Sun’s 95 hotels and 15 casinos around the country. Tsogo means ‘rising’ in Tswana, Chef Benny told me. Applying his MasterChef SA judging skills, Chef Benny challenged the Cape Town guests to participate in an ingredient test, identifying the 13 ingredients of the curry he had prepared.

I asked Chef Benny about the MasterChef SA prize offered of running the MondoVino restaurant at Montecasino, taking over his previous job. The MasterChef SA winner will receive three month’s training in people and financial support he said, and his/her hand will be held by a mentor as well as by Chef Benny. He said that the MasterChef SA reality TV show builds up the Finalists in what they learn, giving the winner a ‘crash course’ in running a restaurant kitchen, including ingredient pairing, budgeting, and food and wine pairing.

Chef Benny’s role in MasterChef SA was to support the contestants, many having made significant sacrifices to participate in the show. He said that he feels privileged to have been part of their journey, it mirroring his own journey of humble beginnings, and giving up many things to pursue his dream to become a chef. He grew up in Alexandra township in Johannesburg, and was strongly influenced by his mother. She started her own business, after taking a cooking course, selling pap, stew, salad, as well as vetkoek, outside nearby factories. While his dream was to become an Electrical Engineer, it was a visit to Durban to visit his friends that led him to Technikon Natal, and he decided to study a 3-year Catering Management course in a city that gave him some space from home. On graduating he was appointed as a Trainee at the Hilton Hotel in Durban, where he worked for more than six years, promoted over this period. The job took him overseas regularly, to promote local food at events held at South African embassies, and it was these events that taught him ‘showmanship’, in interacting with the guests. He moved to the Elangeni Hotel, his first Southern Sun appointment, and he has stayed with the group since then, moving back to Johannesburg as Executive Sous Chef at the OR Thambo Southern Sun. The promotion to Executive Chef at MondoVino restaurant happened 16 months ago, and since the completion of Season 1 of MasterChef SA he is in charge of promoting all the Tsogo Sun restaurants, being its ‘face of food’.

MondoVino restaurant is Italian-themed, but with an African influence, also serving bobotie, oxtail, pap and wors, chakalaka, and its design is ‘modern, young, and hip’. It is ‘casual dining‘, and offers ‘3 – 4 star service‘, he said. It has shifted in its focus on being family-orientated, with a special menu for the children.

M-Net has a five-year licence for MasterChef SA, and there is talk of a Season 2. Chef Benny said it is a bonus for him that Tsogo Sun is a sponsor. His own kitchen staff is watching MasterChef SA, and it gives them hope that they too can develop as he has done, and they are proud to work with him. For him it has been special to meet all the young aspirant chefs, and to inspire them. He is keeping up to date with many of them, and he is delighted about the encouraging messages he is receiving, and the promotion and growth it has given him personally, much as the MasterChef SA Finalists have grown and succeeded too. Just after MasterChef SA started airing, his first baby daughter Dimakatso was born, named after his mother. We laughed about his ‘TV flirt’ with Lungi Nhlanhla, about whom he says that ‘she knows how to combine her flavours’, and that ‘she can cook’. With fellow Finalists Deena Naidoo and Manisha Naidu, Lungi knows her flavours. Yet, he said, all eighteen the Finalists had the potential of getting to the top.

Fellow judge and Chef Andrew Atkinson is a natural ‘clown‘, he said, always making jokes on set, and these kept the energy flowing. But, jokes aside, he knows his food. Chef Pete Goffe-Wood was full of jokes too, but he was ‘tough on camera, telling it like it is‘. He praised his fellow MasterChef SA judges, who had more cooking experience than he does, but always treated him as an equal and made him feel part of the judging team, even though Chefs Andrew and Pete had worked together at the Beverly Hills hotel many years ago. He was inspired by them, and are two of our country’s best, he added. He can exchange information with them now, and pick up the phone to them, being ‘brothers’ now! He assured me that there were no production influences in the judging of the dishes and elimination of the Finalists, and confirmed that the Finalists eliminated simply were those that made the most mistakes in a particular challenge.

To tie in with its sponsorship of MasterChef SA as a ‘Hospitality Host’, and Chef Benny’s involvement in the show as a judge, Tsogo Sun has launched Wednesday Night Dinners, a ‘themed dish of the week inspired by the show, and you be the judge’! The hotel group is advertising this in the Sunday Times Food Weekly.

Chef Benny has grown as much as his Finalists on MasterChef SA have, and he said that initially it was ‘terrifying’ to be on TV, surrounded by nine cameras, but now he is used to it, and he would love to do more of it, having discovered a new side of himself. Meeting with Chef Benny for about an hour reinforced what a nice person he is, the reason why he is so well-liked by the MasterChef SA TV viewers.

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