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
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