Tag Archives: Sarel Loots

MasterChef South Africa: has Season 1 been a success?

July 24, 2012

It is interesting to analyse how successful MasterChef South Africa has been, its final 19th episode being broadcast this evening, the winner of the first season being announced in the special 90 minute Grande Finale. It would appear that the reality TV cooking program has been enjoyed by many South Africans, yet some aspects about it were disliked.

To judge the success of MasterChef SA we looked at quantitative information:

1. Audience Ratings (ARs) are used by the South African advertising industry to quantify the success of a TV program. ARs = Reach x Frequency, or the % of the Target Market reached. It was explained by a media strategist that the AR statistics do not reflect viewership of M-Net repeats, and therefore they do not reflect the full number of viewers. The AR of 0,8 achieved for MasterChef SA exceeds the expectation of 0,5 on an ‘All Adults’ target market filter, she said, and described the program as ‘world class’, ‘professional’, and with good production values. A food TV producer felt the opposite, saying that M-Net must be very disappointed with the viewership achieved, its ultimate goal having been to sell more decoders.

2. On Twitter the @MasterChef_SA account has grown to 11253 Followers. One may have expected more Followers, for the stature of the programme. When one reads the Timeline after an episode, the mix of South African Tweeters is evident, attracting commentary from male and female viewers, and from different language groups. @RobertsonsSpice has only achieved 733 Followers, a very poor performance. @Woolworths has 33 466 Followers, an exceptional number, but had embraced Twitter prior to its MasterChef SA sponsorship. @Nederburg only has 1265 Followers, also disappointing for this sponsor.

3. On Facebook the MasterChef SA page has 8511 likes, Robertsons Herbs and Spice has 1373, Nederburg 7544, and Woolworths an amazing 193676 likes!

4. The YouTube videos of the Robertsons’ Masterclasses by Chef Reuben Riffel show the viewership, and it is understandable that some of the earlier videos would have the highest viewership. The first Masterclass in week 1 (16 March) was for a ‘Cheesy Garlic Bread’, and has achieved 4154 views in the past four months. ‘Stuffed Chicken Breast’ (30 April) has 3335 views to date. ‘Crepes’ (20 March) achieved 3201 views. ‘Pepper Sauce’ (19 March) was seen by 2882 viewers. ‘Chocolate Braaied Bananas’ (16 March) has achieved 2864 views. ‘Milktart’ (2 May) has 2732 views to date, and ‘Roast Chicken’ (15 May) has 2252. The other videos have had lower viewership, some extremely low. The viewership figures must be disappointing for Robertsons, and we could see a sharp drop-off in viewership growth two months ago, midway through the series. The dishes demonstrated by Chef Reuben were hardly of a ‘Masterclass’ stature!

5. Arnold Tanzer was the leader of the MasterChef SA culinary team of eleven, which included Chef Vanie Padayachee from Le Quartier Français too, working behind the scenes in testing every recipe that the Finalists had to prepare, often more than once, checking the preparation times, and making sure that the challenges were ‘doable’. Interesting was the article in the Sunday Times, detailing the quantities of food and liquid that the 19-series programme went through, supplied by Woolworths in the main: 62 kg mussels, 300 kg fish, 500 kg beef, 400 kg lamb, 165 kg chicken, 2592 free-range eggs, 250 kg of cheese, 215 kg of fresh herbs (mainly mint, thyme, and dill – there is no mention of Robertsons’ herbs and spices, which are not stocked by Woolworths), 100 kg mushrooms, 100 kg butter, 600 l Ayrshire milk, 200 kg onions, 240 l sunflower oil, 144 l olive oil, and many more ingredients. These quantities used benefited the suppliers of these products.

6. Twitter was a new social medium to most MasterChef SA Finalists, and they were encouraged to open Twitter accounts. Deena Naidoo has by far the largest number of Followers at 1986, followed by Sarel Loots (1331), Jade de Waal (1254), Ilse Fourie (1019), and Lwazi Mngoma (1018). The other Finalists have very much lower Follower numbers.

Qualitatively, it was interesting to observe:

1. Initially, no one went out on Tuesday evenings, being glued to their TV screens. From Twitter one could see that after the first four weeks life started getting back to normal, and event organisers were not afraid to schedule functions on Tuesday evenings any longer. The hype about MasterChef SA never reached that of the Australian series when flighted locally.

2. Many TV viewers, especially men, were initially not interested in watching the program, but the talk on Twitter and in social circles enticed them eventually to watch the program. Towards the end of the series we saw fewer proactive Tweets about MasterChef SA, and fewer people talking about the reality series socially.

3. Most restaurant staff were unable to watch, as they were working at the time of the program. If they had access to a PVR, they watched a recording afterwards. Most of them do not seem to own a M-Net decoder, and seemed surprisingly uninformed about the reality TV series, or were not interested in it, most chefs seeing it as ‘amateurish’.

4. Viewers expressed their extreme dissatisfaction with the judges’ decision to eliminate Guy Clark and not Jade de Waal in episode 9. There was talk on Twitter about the elimination choice being a ‘production decision’, and many said that they would no longer watch the program due to the perceived rigged choices made.

5. The program sponsorship will have benefited Woolworths and Nederburg, but the impact on Robertsons’ sales is not expected to be significant:

* Woolworths has run superb food advertising during the MasterChef SA episodes, well matched to the theme of each episode, and creating amazing appetite appeal. In the episodes too the Woolworths Pantry was well-branded when the Finalists had to source their ingredients. Significant discounts offered to Woolworths card holders must have brought more feet into their stores. The sponsorship is said to have taken attention away from the embarrassing Frankies beverages debacle. Surprisingly the in-store branding of their sponsorship of the reality TV series was low key, with small banners at the tills. The initial uproar caused by two recipes of the Woolworths Pantry guest food bloggers appeared to have blown over quickly. The Woolworths sustainable seafood commercial linked to the seafood episode shot at Paternoster caused controversy, because the content of the advertisement was not reflected in its stores.

* A media strategist interviewed for this blogpost fed back how she had started buying Nederburg wines again, now finding it trendy to do so, as a result of watching MasterChef SA. Despite the show being filmed at the wine estate, there was little Nederburg branding in the episodes. Its commercials were less impactful than those of Woolworths, and many say that the ‘ingredient’ composition of the Nederburg wines shown in its commersials, to demonstrate the flavours of the wines, may have been taken literally, if viewers did not know better. Surprising was the low key product placement of Nederburg wines, given that the MasterChef SA kitchen was built for the show on the wine estate. A bottle of Amarula received prominence in a Mystery Box for a dessert, one episode focused on food and Nederburg wine pairing, which highlighted that Deena had little wine knowledge, and one episode featured the celebration of the harvest at Nederburg. Disappointing for Nederburg would be Deena Naidoo winning MasterChef SA tonight, as he does not appear to be a wine drinker, given that the prize includes a sommeliers’ course, and a year’s supply of their Winemasters Reserve range wines.

* Robertsons went through the Social Media wars since MasterChef SA started in March, its endorsement by Chef Reuben Riffel having raised credibility and advertising honesty questions, and its Social Media Manager Sonia Cabano having been dismissed soon after she took on the job. The end result is that Chef Reuben’s Robertsons’ endorsement has cost him credibility as a chef, and he appears to now be written out of the Robertsons’ advertising, only one of the five or six spice brand TV commercials featuring him in each of the last few episodes. A further blow to Chef Reuben’s credibility is his very recent endorsement of Rama margarine, also a Unilever brand. Robertsons did not manage its sponsorship well, in that registered ‘members’ of their Masterclass page were sent recipes unrelated to the previous day’s MasterChef SA episode, a marketing failure. In general, Robertsons went through a torrid time, and ‘MasterChef SA‘ must be a swearword inside its hallowed halls! Its attempt at Social Media was a miserable failure in many respects, and appeared poorly managed, despite its use of the Liquorice social media marketing agency.

6. The MasterChef SA series benefited sponsors Woolworths and Nederburg, jointly creating two wine brands specifically for the series (Grenache 2010, and a Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay blend). It also opened the door for Nederburg to sell its Winemasters Reserve range in Woolworths stores over the four month MasterChef SA broadcast period. There was no cross-benefit between Woolworths and Robertsons, the retailer having to publicly admit on Twitter that it does not stock Robertsons spices and herbs.

7. Initially the response to our competitions to predict the overall winner of MasterChef SA and the weekly Finalist leaving the show was surprisingly low, but increased the closer it got to the Finale, and the fewer the options for elimination and winning the grand prize became. The readership of our weekly MasterChef SA episode summary the day after the show saw an increase week by week. Restaurant staff working on Tuesday evenings, international readers, and local non-subscribers who cannot view M-Net, and surprisingly even viewers of the program, fed back that they read our MasterChef SA weekly write-ups. We got hooked onto MasterChef SA, loving writing up each episode, and will miss the Tuesday evening programmes.

8. MasterChef SA dislikes focused strongly on the judges, particularly the expression on Chef Andrew Atkinson’s face, his dress, and his stare at the Finalists when judging their dishes. Chefs who have met him, however, say that this is not him at all, and praise his culinary skills. Chef Pete Goffe-Wood attracted negative criticism from the second half of the series onwards. Chef Benny Masekwameng was the most loved judge by far, always kind and supportive to the Finalists. In general chefs felt that the chef judges should have worn chef outfits, and not worn earrings and piercings, to set a good example to young chefs. Interesting is that every guest chef wore a chef’s outfit in the series. Initial feedback at the start of the series was critical of all the chef judges being male. After Chef Margot Janse’s appearance, she was judged by Twitterers to have been an ideal judge.

9. The program series has been criticised for the poor quality food that the Finalists prepared for many weeks, although this criticism subsided in the last few programs, when the Finalists had to replicate dishes made by top chefs Michel Roux Jnr of La Gavroche, Peter Tempelhoff of The Greenhouse, and Margot Janse of Le Quartier Français. Linked to this is the chefs’ criticism about the prize of a year-long (now extended to two years) contract at MondeVino restaurant at Montecasino, saying it is irresponsible, as none of the Finalists could step into the shoes of a restaurant chef, who has had years of training and experience, and said that it is demeaning to their career to imply that little or no training is required.

10. There is no doubt that MasterChef SA has stimulated an interest in cooking, and in trying out more complicated dishes. It probably has stimulated interest in eating out at restaurants such as Terroir, The Greenhouse, Biesmiellah, Sel et Poivre, and The Tasting Room, all featured in the series.

11. The most gratifying end result of MasterChef SA has been the growth in the Finalists’ cooking skills, in what they learnt from the judges, and the Masterclasses held by the visiting chefs. They also grew vastly in confidence. Chef Arnold Tanzer fed back in the Sunday Times that ‘you could see the change in people as the series went on, particularly how their perception of food changed‘. He added that he was surprised that even the film crew members were excited about what they had filmed, and wanted advice on how to make some of the dishes. A number of the Finalists have made the best of their MasterChef SA participation: Berdina Schurink has opened Bella Sophia Culinary Café in Pretoria; Thys Hattingh has changed jobs, now working at the Compass Group as a staff restaurant consultant; Guy Clark changed careers, and now is a chef for the Madame Zingara group, at Café Mozart and at Bombay Bicycle Club; Charles Canning and Samantha Nolan have a stand at the Old Biscuit Mill market on Saturdays, following in the footsteps of Chef Pete; and Lungi Nhlanhla is now deputy food editor at Drum magazine. There is not one Finalist that has not benefited from his or her participation in MasterChef SA, being a springboard to living their passion for cooking. Tonight it will be Sue-Ann Allen or Deena Naidoo who will walk off with the MasterChef SA 2012 crown, and one of their lives will change forever! We wish them both the best of luck.

POSTSCRIPT 28/7: A furore has been created by The Citizen, reporting yesterday that MasterChef SA winner Deena Naidoo was unhappy about the misrepresentation of his Tsogo Sun MondoVino restaurant prize, damaging the image of the reality TV series, M-Net, its sponsors, Finalists, and chef judges.

POSTSCRIPT 28/7: Times Live has published audience figures, to highlight the success of MasterChef SA TV series: MasterChef SA had the 5th highest viewership on M-Net between its start in March and 24 July, beaten by ‘Carte Blanche’ (265939 viewers), ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ movie with Matthew McConaughey (221411), ‘CSI Miami’ (202102), and ‘Idols’ (196698). The reality cooking show beat ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ on viewership. M-Net had capitalised on the trend to viewership of cooking programs in producing the local MasterChef SA TV series. No decision has been made about producing a Season 2 of MasterChef SA next year.

POSTSCRIPT 29/8: If the article from Channel 24 is correct (it is part of the same media group that owns M-Net), there will be a season 2 of MasterChef SA, another measure of the success of the reality TV series. M-Net has not confirmed this.

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

MasterChef SA episode 17: Finalists judged by their family, Sarel Loots ducks out!

July 11, 2012

It was a nail-biting episode 17 of MasterChef South Africa last night, with a dessert challenge, which sent Sue-Ann Allen and Sarel Loots into the Pressure Test, having to replicate a duck dish of Chef Peter Tempelhoff of number one South African Eat Out Top 10 restaurant The Greenhouse in Constantia. Sarel Loots was sent home, for forgetting to make the hazelnut gel for the complicated dish.

Not knowing why they were asked, the remaining four Finalists were asked what sacrifices they had made to be at MasterChef SA. Manisha Naidu said it was her husband playing second fiddle to the programme, and that she had to cut short her honeymoon in India to participate in the programme. For Deena Naidoo it was staying away from his family. Sue-Ann said it was giving up everything, including her job, to be at MasterChef SA. After this introduction, the Finalists were sent to their work stations, where a Mystery Box awaited them, the bottle of Amarula being the most visible. To date the episodes have had very little Distell and Nederburg product placements, and this was one of the most branded episodes, in that the Amarula had to play a central role in the dessert. Other ingredients in the box were sweet potatoes, pears, risotto, oranges, cocoa powder, and coconut milk. They were told that a panel of secret judges would evaluate their dishes in a ‘blind tasting’, and they were promised ‘a reward to uplift you‘, being (then still unknown to them) the partners of Sarel (wife Lieze), Deena (wife Kathy), Manisha (husband Thoneshan), and Sue-Ann’s mother Gail. They were given 60 minutes in which to create a dessert worthy of MasterChef SA. Chef Andrew Atkinson reminded the Finalists that baking is about precision in the ingredient amounts, with Chef Pete Goffe-Wood saying that it would make the difference of a ‘sweet victory‘ or going ‘pear-shaped‘.

The four Finalists were sent to a viewing room, watching via a TV monitor how the dishes were evaluated anonymously by the four mystery guests, being their family members. Not having seen them for a number of weeks, it was the men especially that showed their emotions by crying in seeing their partners on the screen. The ‘guest judges’ said that each of the four desserts were very different, and that the Finalists had done a ‘wonderful job’, it being impossible to judge which of their partners had made the desserts. Sue-Ann said that ‘the judges were tough critics, but it was harder being judged by our loved ones‘.

Deena wanted to prepare a chocolate fondant, but there was no chocolate in the box. He made use of his winning bell from episode 16, having won that episode featuring Chef Michel Roux Jnr from La Gavroche in London. He used the lifeline bell to call on Chef Andrew, being ‘the maestro of chocolate’, asking him how he could make the chocolate fondant without the chocolate. He was advised to use the cocoa, butter, vanilla paste, and sugar. Deena said that his wife Kathy is his harshest critic, and that he had ‘drawn from her positive spirit’ throughout MasterChef SA. She praised his dish as ‘delicious‘, without knowing that it was made by him, the custard served with it too, and said that the sugar work ‘had more craft in it’ compared to that which Sarel presented with his cupcake.

Sue-Ann made poached pear tart with Chantilly cream, and an Amarula reduction. Her fruit was too hot, and she had some problems with her pastry. Her dessert was said to ‘lack a bit of colour’, and her mother said it looked good enough for her to ‘order in a restaurant’. The sauce and the pears were liked, but the pastry not as much. Sarel made an Amarula cupcake, which he served with sweet potato crisps and spun sugar. Chef Benny Masekwameng was concerned that Sarel may have chosen too complicated a dish. His dessert was described as ‘delicately balanced’, with ‘crispy sugar work‘, and not being ‘sickly sweet’. Manisha cooked an interesting looking liquid, poaching her pears in the cocoa and orange liquid mix, serving it with Amarula custard and chocolate sauce. It was described as a ‘good dish’.

Three of the four family judges voted Deena’s Chocolate Fondant with Amarula Crème Anglaise and caramelised pears as being the best, and his prize was to take his wife Kathy on a picnic at Plaisir de Merle outside Franschhoek, test-driving the Hyundai Elantra which the MasterChef SA winner will win. She proudly said to her husband of 18 years: ‘You are a Master Chef’!

Sue-Ann and Sarel were sent into the Pressure Test, and were introduced to Chef Peter Tempelhoff, who had made one of The Greenhouse’s dishes, for them to replicate, being Roast duck with hazelnut milk gel, confit duck pastilla, and honey roasted figs, served with an hibiscus duck sauce. Chef Peter was described by Chef Benny as being at the cutting edge of culinary trends, being in charge of five restaurants at the Relais & Chateaux McGrath hotel group in Constantia, Hermanus, and Plettenberg Bay. They had 2 hours and 45 minutes to make the dish of six recipe pages, the most complicated to date, they were told.

Sarel said that on ‘this elimination day I will fight with everything I have’. He recalled that he had ‘pulled through each time’, and that timing was important, and keeping his head together. He confidently said that ‘timing was on my way’, and observed that he was ahead of Sue-Ann on time. However, Deena observed him from above, and cautioned him to slow down and to be gentle. Chef Benny told the other judges that Sarel’s spring roll did not look like one at all, and that it was not sealed at the ends, which would make the duck confit shoot out when fried. Sarel’s downfall was that he forgot to make the hazelnut gel, realising this in the last 15 minutes of the preparation time he had. He put as much on his plate as he could during the timing countdown. Sarel said that making the dish had been ‘like running a marathon’, and said that he was worried that it was this plate that would send him home. The spring roll was judged to not be as crisp as it should have been. Chef Andrew said that while the thickness of the fat on the duck breast and the oil on the dish could put one off, the sauce had made it come together. Chef Andrew said that the hazelnut gel would have finished off and lifted the dish.

Sue-Ann placated herself by saying that she had made it through other Pressure Tests. She started with her stock first, something she had learnt in the reality show series. She said she would work ‘at the right pace to complete this task’. Discussing the springroll with Chef Pete, he said that it needed ‘a perfect coil around the spring roll’. She wasn’t happy with her first pastry attempt, and remade it. Chef Andrew was concerned that she was spending too much time on the spring roll. She was confident of her dish, saying that she ‘did a damn good job of it’. Chef Benny said that it was a ‘good attempt’, and that she had done a lot of work on the spring roll. Chef Andrew said that the breast was a little overcooked, but that its fat was ‘nice and crispy’, and the hazelnut gel ‘superb‘, rounding off the dish. Chef Pete echoed the overcooking feedback, as well as the success of the gel, as the most important element, in bringing all the elements of the dish together.

It was the missing hazelnut gel that sent Sarel on his way, and he said that the MasterChef SA experience had been ‘amazing‘, and that he was ‘proud of what I have achieved’. He added that he is a ‘soft guy’, but not given to tears. He was told that his journey is only just beginning, and that he has a big heart. It was announced that Chef Margot Janse of the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français will be in the MasterChef SA kitchen next week.

Once again, it was noticeable that Chef Reuben Riffel appears to be increasingly cut out of the Robertsons TV commercials, only appearing in one of their six commercials broadcast during MasterChef SA last night! It has been written with shock on Twitter, and this blog as a comment, that Chef Reuben is now endorsing Rama margarine, another Unilever brand!

POSTSCRIPT 25/8: It was very sad to see the news that Sarel Loots passed away from a heart attack this morning.

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

MasterChef SA episode 17: Who will be booted out? Win with The Restaurant at Grande Provence!

July 10, 2012

MasterChef SA is the talk of the country, and we have only 3 more gripping episodes to look forward to in this season 1. To spice things up a little, we have launched two competitions, the first being a prediction of who will win MasterChef SA in episode 19.

We are also running the last of a weekly lucky draw for the correct prediction of who will be booted out of MasterChef SA every week. For the correct prediction of who will leave MasterChef SA in episode 17 today (10 July), Grande Provence has generously offered a 3-course restaurant voucher for two, to the value of R600, to the winner.

Darren Badenhorst is the new Executive Chef at Grande Provence. He left school in Durban to study marketing, but gave up after a year, because he realised that his passion lay in cooking. He enrolled at the Christina Martin School of Food and Wine, the most prominent culinary school in KwaZulu-Natal, where he did a one year intensive, ‘extremely strenuous’, diploma course. From there he went to the Benguerra Lodge in Mozambique as Executive Chef, but his stay was short-lived, having to evacuate the island after the worst ever cyclone to hit Africa destroyed most buildings on the island. He was appointed at Zimbali Boutique Hotel as Chef de Partie. He then moved to Eat Me Gourmet Café, a private contract catering company, and to Three Cities‘ One on One Events catering company, promoted to Executive Chef. Feeling that he had reached a glass ceiling, he moved to the Cape, and joined Gregory Czarnecki at Waterkloof. In this time he met Grande Provence Chef Darren Roberts at one of the magnificent Big Five Multiple Sclerosis charity lunches at which Waterkloof had participated. He started at Grande Provence over a year ago, and has taken over from Chef Darren Roberts, who has taken up an appointment in the Seychelles.

He sees the level of cuisine in the Cape to be far beyond that of any other region, and believes that competition between restaurants brings out the best in them, and is key to creating consistency. Flair and passion must show at all times. He admires Neil Jewell for his charcuterie, there being no comparison, and Chef Margot Janse from Le Quartier Français, for her creativity and experimentation with the food that she prepares. Chef Darren Badenhorst says that he will not change the menu drastically, sticking to the fine dining French cuisine with an Asian twist. The quality will be the same, but he will add his stamp to it. He has a small team of six in the kitchen, which will grow next summer. He lives on the Grande Provence farm, and loves his job, rarely taking time off. He likes to create dishes with balance, in texture and in colour. Coming from the Natal coast, he loves diving and spearfishing, and also therefore preparing seafood. His first new addition to the menu is a delicious soft shell crab starter on pan-fried sushi with sesame seed, with a soft boiled yolk presented in a beautifully crafted kataifi pastry, the colour coming from a red pepper aioli, and finished off with soya and wasabi pearls. His new Ballontine of Chicken with a bone marrow centre, truffle of pomme duchess, carrot and cardamom pureé, morel mushrooms, cracked black pepper, and fresh Japanese truffle, is an artistic portrait that could have been framed and hung in the Grande Provence Gallery! Chef Darren’s latest dish, which I ordered on Friday, is ‘Bacon and Eggs‘, a starter with home-cured bacon, quail egg soufflé, brioche, and hollandaise sauce.

Karl Lambour, previously with Holden Manz and Constantia Glen, is the new GM of Grande Provence.

Tweet your prediction of which of the 4 remaining finalists will be booted out of MasterChef SA to @WhaleCottage, or write it as a comment to this blogpost. Closing time for entries is Tuesday 10 July at 19h30, at the start of episode 17. The winner will be contacted immediately after the show ends. Should there be no correct entry received, the prize will go into the main prize for predicting the winner of MasterChef South Africa, in episode 19.

POSTSCRIPT 10/7: Cassandra Cupido has won the Grande Provence voucher, having correctly predicted that Sarel Loots would be eliminated in the Pressure Test tonight. Congratulations.

The Restaurant at Grande Provence, R45, Franschhoek. Tel (021) 876-8600. www.grandeprovence.co.za Twitter: @GrandeProvence Monday – Sunday Lunch, Monday – Saturday Dinner.

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

MasterChef SA episode 16: Deena Naidoo honoured by star Chef Michel Roux Jnr, Lungi Nhlanhla ballotined out!

July 4, 2012

Last night’s episode 16 was the most sophisticated MasterChef SA one we have seen to date, and reached a high with Chef Michel Roux Jnr of La Gavroche, a two Michelin star restaurant in London, giving a Masterclass. It felt that we as viewers as well as the final five Finalists had reached culinary heaven, the closest that most of us will get to getting a taste of a Michelin star restaurant! It will have taught the MasterChef SA judges how gracious one can be with one’s feedback, no matter how negative the message is.

The episode started with a quick reminder of the big prizes at stake for the winner of MasterChef SA: R250000 in cash from Robertsons, a year’s supply of Nederburg as well as tuition from the SA Sommeliers Association, a trip to Tuscany sponsored by Woolworths, a Hyundai, and a year of being in charge of Tsogo Sun’s MondoVino Restaurant at Montecasino. Sue-Ann Allen was the first to put up her hand when the finalists were asked who wants to become the winner of MasterChef SA.

Chef Michel Roux Jnr was introduced to the Finalists, Deena Naidoo saying that it was a treat to meet this ‘culinary royalty‘. La Gavroche opened in 1993, and Chef Michel is a judge on MasterChef UK. Lungi Nhlanhla cried tears of happiness in experiencing this famous chef. Chef Michel said of himself that he comes from a ‘family dynasty of butter and cream loving chefs’, whose clients ‘leave content with a full tummy’. Chef Pete Goffe-Wood said that his meal at La Gavroche was ‘one of the most memorable’ he has experienced. Chef Michel shared with the finalists that if they ‘cook from the heart and believe in what you put on the plate’, they would be a champion. He prepared his La Gavroche signature dish, sounding even better with its French name, being artichoke stuffed with chicken liver, topped with truffle slices, and served with a Madeira sauce. All the Finalists as well as the viewers were taken through a step by step explanation of how to make the precious dish. Turning the artichokes was difficult but important to reveal the beautiful shape of the heart. Chef Michel said that he seasons at the beginning, and then adds more, if needed. Keeping the chicken mousse on ice is important. Deena said he ‘captured every motion‘ of Chef Michel, who said one must take the ‘choke out of the artichoke’, yet retain its shape. Truffles must be treated with respect, being so expensive, he emphasised. Guests expect to pay more for dishes with truffles, but they expect the chef to be generous with them too, he said. Sue-Ann said that Chef Michel’s work once again showed the ‘simple beauty of food‘. When she tasted his dish, she said that she experienced a ‘texture and taste explosion‘. Sarel praised its ‘earthiness’, saying it was ‘just beautiful’, and Deena said it was a ‘heavenly dish cooked by a genius‘.

The task to the Finalists was to replicate the artichoke dish of Chef Michel Jnr, and to make a chicken ballotine, which can be prepared by braising or roasting it. The expectation of the Finalists was ‘perfection‘, he said. The ‘carrot’ offered was a bell, which the Finalist preparing the best dish would receive, for use in episode 17, to obtain advice from one of the Chef Judges.

Sue-Ann chose to make a cream cheese, sage, rosemary and parma ham stuffed chicken ballotine with beetroot rings and green pea mash. She was said to cook with ‘heart’. The judges were sceptical about her cream cheese stuffing, describing it as an ‘interesting combination’, and questioned how it would hold together, to which she answered that she would use egg white. Chef Michel said her presentation was nice, and its taste was the closest to his. However, her ballotine was not so successful, the cream cheese not binding. Sue-Ann said that who ‘comes out strong today, will have a serious chance to win‘.

Lungi was praised for her concept of echoing the artichoke stuffing in her ballotine, ‘a very clever idea’ according to Chef Michel. Yet he expressed his concern about her cauliflower pureé, cutting it fine if she wanted it to set and cook. Chef Benny Masekwameng praised her artichoke dish, cut open to show the chicken liver inside. Chef Michel said that her concept was right, but not its execution. Her cauliflower mousse did not hold, and went ‘blop’, she said. While the judges were evaluating her dish, she started to cry, and gentleman Chef Benny got up and gave her a hanky to dry her tears. Chef Michel said her plate was too full, and she should have used a bigger plate to make her dish look better and neater. He told her that ‘we must learn through our mistakes‘. Chef Andrew told her that ‘to be adventurous with food, you need boundaries as well’.

Deena used minced pork with roasted pistachio nuts. He said that he was worried about being judged by Chef Michel, but told himself to keep focus, and show respect to Chef Michel. His biggest challenge was to turn the artichoke, he said. His dish was described as being ‘visually bold and simple’, but his use of two plates was questioned by the judges. Deena said he wanted to highlight the accompaniment on a separate plate, in honour of Chef Michel. Chef Pete very quickly said that it was the wrong thing to do. Chef Andrew Atkinson gave an approving wink. Chef Pete liked the ballotine sausage, saying it was clever, with his use of pistachio and the crisp ham on the outside. Chef Michel said that it was the only ‘true ballotine‘ prepared of the five he evaluated, especially as Deena had toasted the pistachio nuts.

Sarel Loots stuffed his ballotine with peppadew (spicy capsicum, it was explained to Chef Michel, not having heard of it or tasted it before). When he was questioned about the peppadew overpowering the truffle, he said that it would give his dish colour, and that he was ‘experimental’, wanting to ‘push the envelope’! Chef Michel said that the truffle should be the star, and not the peppadew. The presentation was praised, but he was told his dish came in two separate parts: the artichoke mousse, which was a little heavy and dense, and the ballotine, which had a good balance of flavour, but the two did not match each other, as the peppadew overpowered the truffle. Sarel had taken a huge risk, he was told. During the broadcast, Sarel Tweeted sweetly: ‘We were so honoured to be in this episode – going home will be no problem‘.

Manisha Naidu looked worried when preparing her dish, and Chef Michel advised her to ‘stay calm, stay focused, and believe in yourself‘. She said it was hard work to pass the chicken through the sieve to make the mousse. Manisha was told that she could have added more colour to her dish, and that her stuffing was not visible (she said her mushrooms had shrunk). But her artichoke was well turned, and was very close to his. Her ballotine was dull and over-cooked, said Chef Pete.

Chef Michel presented the bell for the best dish to Deena, saying that he ‘might one day become a professional chef‘, in presenting the ‘only true ballotine today‘, amazing praise! Lungi was sent home, and Chef Benny said that she had cooked some of his favourite dishes on the show, reflecting her creativity and passion for food. Chef Pete encouraged her to keep on cooking, and that ‘we look forward to seeing more of you’. Lungi said she was now recognised as a cook, having ‘become a mature young woman who had travelled an amazing road of self-discovery’ through MasterChef SA. The highest compliment came from Chef Michel, with his invitation for Lungi to visit him at his restaurant when she comes to London. Chef Peter Tempelhoff of Eat Out Top 10 top restaurant The Greenhouse at Cellars Hohenhort will give a Masterclass in episode 17.