[Submitted via press release]
The Top Three were treated to a special three-course menu presented by Margot Janse at The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek. This restaurant has been in the Top 50 on the San Pellegrino Top-Restaurants-in-the-World list for the past seven years.
Contestants babbled in excitement: “We are super excited! This is something I would never get to do in the real world,” Manisha said. Deena shared her sentiments: “I forgot about the challenge. I just want to meet this phenomenal woman!”
The first course served was a beetroot sponge filled with an onion and spinach pureé, served on a labné of buttermilk, cucumber and dill granita and a dusting of buchu.
The second course was a crown of quail served with a liquorice glaze, baby fennel, grilled porcini mushrooms, a crumble and a purée of onion and liquorice root.
Dessert was a pear and baobab parfait. Margot used the powder inside the baobab seed to make the parfait and she served it with a salted mango gel, caramelised honey jellies and pistachio nut crumble.
Once they tasted the food, they had to decide which course they would attempt to recreate. Sue-Ann picked the beetroot sponge; Manisha, the quail course and Deena selected the baobab and pear parfait. They each needed to make four servings of the dish and had 90 minutes to do it in.
After the Judge’s tasted what the contestant’s had prepared, Margot praised them all: “I take my hat off to all three of you. Well done.”
Chef Andrew explained that is was very difficult to decide who had to leave the MasterChef Kitchen. But someone had to leave and this time it was Manisha.
“This for me wasn’t about the prize. It was about the journey. MasterChef has been an absolutely amazing experience. The confidence I’ve gained in myself, the strength that I have... I realised through this that I can! This is a very liberating.”