Episode 6 of MasterChef South Africa aired last week and of course I have to share my views. Having been part of the fourth season of MasterChef, I can’t help but compare while watching the show. 

A fun fact - my lighting company LLSA supplied all the lights in the pantry and around the studio, and we are mentioned as a sponsor in the credits. 

Spoiler Alert

If you are behind, I recommend you stop reading now!
Click here read up more about the MasterChef season 5 contestants, or read the summaries from the previous MasterChef episodes if you’re trying to catch up.

Want to Watch MasterChef South Africa?

MasterChef South Africa Season premiered on Saturday July 13 at 7:30 pm on S3, and new episodes are aired every Saturday.
If you miss it an episode, it will be rebroadcast every Sunday on S2 at 6:30 pm and on Wednesdays on S3 at 6:00 pm.

Looking back - What happened on the previous MasterChef episodes?

In the first episode, contestants had to make a chicken dish with a sauce or a broth, but for it to be at MasterChef-worthy standard. They were given 90 minutes and their dish needed to include a mirepoix (a mixture of diced vegetables cooked on a low heat in oil or butter) and it needed to include a Bouquet Garni, which is a bundle of herbs. In traditional French cuisine this includes parsley, bay leaves and thyme but other herbs can be added too. 

What was most shocking about this first episode, is that the contestants went down from 20 to 15 in one go. The contestants who were eliminated in the first episode were Lucas, Lesego, Robyn, Andrew and Ella. 

In the second episode, contestants had to use the single humble ingredient of an apple, and think of the apple of their eye in their life when cooking. The contestants were allowed to make something sweet or savoury.  No contestants were eliminated and Naledi won the mystery box challenge.

In the third episode, Naledi was up in the gantry as a reward for winning the mystery box challenge in the previous episode. The remaining contestants were challenged by guest judge Chef Nokx Majozi in a pressure test to recreate her signature Pepper Steak Pie. Tina, Bridget and Amo had made the best pepper steak pies, and Tina won the elimination challenge. Nash, Lona and Melanie found themselves in the bottom three and Melanie was eliminated. 

In the fourth episode, the contestants were asked to pay tribute to and draw inspiration from the judges’ star signs when creating their dishes in this challenge. They couldn’t choose which judge’s star sign they were going to base their dish on, but it was an elimination based on chance as they had to choose a card in order to determine which protein they would be cooking. Chanel, Shreya and Zak found themselves in the bottom three. Zakariyya Ibrahim (Zak) went home as his curry failed to deliver. According to Judge Katlego, the lack of seasoning was his downfall and both the rice and carrots were overcooked, and the dish was not balanced.

In the fifth episode, guest judge Jackie Burger challenged the contestants to use fashion models and their incredible outfits to make their own creative interpretation of the outfits. Nabela, Ketsia and Tebogo were in the top 3 and Amogelang Maluleke (Amo), Tzu Ting Long (Tina) and Penny in the bottom, with Tina from Home Bao going home in the end.

MasterChef South Africa Episode 6

MasterChef Team Challenge

The sixth episode of MasterChef South Africa was the first team challenge of this season. Whilst a team challenge was my worst type of challenge when a contestant on MasterChef South Africa season 4, it is a great way to find out who’s cut out for the kitchen. A team challenge teaches you to work together with others, and cook at scale.

The episode took place outside of the studio, at Durbanville Hills wine estate. Contestants were welcomed to the award-winning Tangram restaurant by cellar master Pieter-Niel Rossouw.

To determine who would be in the blue and who would be in the red team, contestants were asked to pour wine into a glass. The blue team was made up of Naledi, Chanel, Amo, Shreya, Nabila and Tebogo. Tebogo poured rosé which meant that he would be Team Captain of the blue team. The Blue Team could count themselves lucky, considering Tebogo had won the previous challenge.

The red team was made up of Penny, Ketsia, Nash, Bridget, Lona, Refe with Nash as their Team Captain.

The Challenge

The ‘Buffet of New Beginnings’ was essentially a food and wine pairing. Teams needed to create an interactive buffet table re-inventing old-style buffet combinations and pairing creations with wine from the Durbanville Hills Collectors Reserve range.

The thought behind a food and wine pairing, Judge Justine Drake explained on Instagram: “the wine brings out the best of the food and the food brings out the best of the wine”. The event the MasterChef contestants were asked to cook for was a celebration of the first harvest of Cellar Master Pieter-Niel Rossouw (whilst paying tribute to his predecessor, Martin Moore, who unexpectedly passed away last year). They would need to serve the winemaking team and thirty of their guests. The dishes must represent the symbol of the Tangram Restaurant, a seven-piece geometrical pattern. While the centre-piece must be a protein, they must also whip up five gourmet side dishes and a show-stopping dessert.

Both the wine maker and Tangram restaurant’s Head Chef Tamzyn Ehlers, were on the floor helping contestants out to guide them how to pair your food with the wine. They were given three hours.

The promise at the beginning of the challenge, was a good one: the winning team will be safe from next week’s elimination challenge.

The Judges and the Team Captains

True to their roles, Justine, Zola and Katlego, stood on the side watching the two teams battle it out. Their conversations are always entertaining, and it was no different in this episode:

Zola: “Would you like to be a Team Captain?”

Justine: “I’m so bossy - of course!”

Both laugh, and Zola agreed: “I don’t know why I asked that. 

In all seriousness I would have to agree with Katlego though, who said that with it being the first challenge, he would rather be the co-pilot at this stage of the game. This was my strategy whilst on MasterChef South Africa as well. In a team challenge, some of the other contestants had said that I should be the Team Captain, but I refused. I didn’t want to put a target on my back in case I was going to lead the team into losing the challenge. In this episode though, the contestants did not get to choose who their Team Captain would be, but it was instead determined through a game of chance. It was interesting to observe the different leadership styles Tebogo and Nash inhibited. Tebogo turned out to be an energetic team captain, while his Martial arts discipline showed as well. Nash was cool as a cucumber, but perhaps a bit too chilled.

As the judges observed: “There should be more organisation and less chaos in the blue team” (Justine). And this was true, whilst there was also chaos in the red team, it appeared to me more organised chaos.

An Unexpected Curve Ball

Whilst in the middle of the challenge, contestants were notified that they needed to make a seventh dish which needed to be a memorable one featuring the Durbanville Hills brandy.

The MasterChef contestants’ Dishes

As part of the challenge, the contestants had been asked to make a show-stopping dessert, and both the red and the blue team delivered on this brief. Chanel from the Blue Team had made a brandy pudding which was on point. She was complimented both on the texture of the nuts and on how well it paired with the Durbanville Hills range. Penny’s desert also hit a note. The flavour was impactful and it paired beautifully with the brandy, according to the judges. 

The Winning Team of the Challenge

The judges votes counted 60% and the guest votes counted 40%. Guests voted by pouring a glass of wine. Ultimately, the blue team won, which meant that Naledi, Chanel, Amo, Shreya, Nabila and Tebogo would be able to sit out the next challenge in episode 7 and watch the red team contestants from the gantry instead.

MasterChef South Africa episode 7

Looking ahead, the preview of the seventh episode of MasterChef South Africa gave us a hint of what the next episode will be about. After losing the Team Challenge, the Red team will be battling it out against each other, and one contestant will have to go home. From the preview it looked like the contestants will have to transform ordinary leftovers into extraordinary dishes, using South African staples.

Who will win MasterChef South Africa season 5? Time will tell…

MasterChef Season 5 Episode Summaries

Click here read up more about the MasterChef season 5 contestants, or read the summary from the previous MasterChef episodes if you’re trying to catch up:

• Episode 1 - Twenty MasterChef contestants cook a chicken dish, but only 15 remain

• Episode 2 - The MasterChef contestants cook for the the Apple of their Eye in a mystery box challenge

• Episode 3 - Chef Nokx Majozi Signature Pepper Steak Pie

• Episode 4 - Paying tribute to the Judges’ Star Signs

• Episode 5 - Translating Fashion into Food with guest judge Jackie Burger

• Episode 6 - Buffet of New Beginnings at Durbanville Hills wine estate (this page)

• Episode 7 - Leftovers and South African staples

• Episode 8 - Potatoes, Air Fryers, an Immunity Pin and two Special Guests

• Episode 9 - Cabbage, cabbage, cabbage

• Episode 10 - A fusion of South African and Italian

• Episode 11 - Heritage Trinity: Wors, Skilpadjies on the Hibachi and a Starch

• Episode 12 - Life’s Tiny Pleasures - a Taste Challenge and Micro Fine Dining

• Episode 13 - A Pressure Test cooking Chef Moses Moloi’s “Enchanted Forest Elegance”

Want to Watch MasterChef South Africa?

MasterChef South Africa Season premiered on Saturday July 13 at 7:30 pm on S3, and new episodes are aired every Saturday.
If you miss it an episode, it will be rebroadcast every Sunday on S2 at 6:30 pm and on Wednesdays on S3 at 6:00 pm.

Or click here read up more about the MasterChef season 5 contestants.

About Shawn Godfrey

Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.

Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.

It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.

On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (6), Olivia (4) and Harvey (2).

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