Press Release
"A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou.”
Episode 11
After winning the chicken challenge last week, Durban teacher Penny (31) had the advantage of choosing the pairings for last night's team challenge, in which the Top 8 had to prepare little tapas-style dishes to pair with fine wines from the Nederburg 5600 range.
Penny had given a great deal of thought to the pairing of her competitors. “I certainly wasn’t going for an approach of ‘oh, I want myself to do really well and I want everyone else to bomb’,” she said. Penny chose Cape Town musician Francois (22) to cook with her, “because he’s really good with things like meat and he’s very calm in the kitchen,” she said. She also chose Blue as their team colour.
She paired the two Capetonians, domestic worker Sipho (38) and ad consultant Ian (49) in the Red team and Roxi (26), a train driver assistant from Durban, with Johannesburg life coach Philippa (48) in the Yellow team. And that left Mel (25), the lodge manager from Vaalwater, and Cape Town dental technologist Abigail (38) to make up the Green team.
Some of South Africa’s top sommeliers had gathered at the Nederburg wine estate manor house to judge this challenge: Bongi Sodladla, the global food and beverage manager for South African Airways; Tsogo Sun Group Sommelier Miguel Chan; one of the country’s youngest professional sommeliers, Gregory Mutambe; award-winning internationally accredited sommelier Pearl Oliver; and Neil Grant from Burrata restaurant in Cape Town.
The four teams were to cook and serve their dishes in 15-minute staggered intervals and Penny decided that Roxi and Philippa would serve first, followed by her and Francois, then the Red team with Ian and Sipho, and Abigail and Mel’s Green team last.
For their first dish Roxi and Philippa served a salmon fishcake and a tropical salsa leafy salad with an oriental dressing with the Nederburg 5600 Chenin Blanc. Pearl Oliver thought the pineapple really lifted out the flavour of the wine, but her colleague Neil Grant thought the avocado ice cream was a little too rich for this particular wine. Although, “I would love to eat that on its own!” he admitted. The Yellow team scored 75 points out of a hundred for their first round.
Penny and Francois’s Blue team served salmon smoked in honeybush tea on bruschetta, and salt-and-pepper squid with a parsley and garlic aioli, which Neil Grant thought was very fresh and clean. The aioli especially complimented the Chenin Blanc very well, he said. The judges scored them 71%.
Ian and a nervous Siphokazi served Norwegian salmon that had been poached in the Chenin Blanc and infused with lemongrass, ginger and garlic, to rave reviews. “It’s just layers and layers of flavour and each one of them just meets the Chenin Blanc halfway. I think it’s beautiful,” said Pearl Oliver, and the Red team scored 89 points!
The Green team of Mel and Abigail ended the first round with a potato cake and avocado that had been smoked with beachwood and tarragon, along with seared salmon with a tarragon and wine foam, and some mussels, for even more ocean flavour. Miguel Chan thought it was bold of them to smoke some elements of the dish, considering that the wine was unwooded, “but the sauce and the foam was perfect,” he complimented them, and Abigail and Mel scored 77 points on their first round.
By then it was time for the Yellow team’s second dish, which was salted duck breast on onion marmalade with butternut purée and a parsley and basil drizzle. “Onion marmalade and the duck!” Pearl Oliver exclaimed. “It was just such a beautiful surprise, complimenting the fruit in the wine, lifting those fruit flavours.”
For their Nederburg 5600 Cabernet Sauvignon pairing Penny and Francois had concocted a “Karoo-Asian” fusion dish. The Blue team served dim sum with a seared ostrich fillet filling, along with a sweet potato and pumpkin purée. “And on top there’s a sesame seed syrup and of course very finely chopped green beans, and with the edible flowers, to give that sweetness,” Francois explained.
Ian and Siphokazi’s second dish was a black pepper crusted beef carpaccio crostini, served with onion marmalade and roasted garlic aioli. “It’s carpaccio with a difference. I must say this is very impressive, I can’t really fault it, I think it was spot-on,” Gregory Mutambe said.
And the final dish of the day was the Green team’s audacious seared beef fillet on a crispy pastry, with a Cabarnet Sauvignon reduction with strawberries and a bit of balsamic, all with a sprinkling of toasted rooibos salt on top. “Big wines require big flavours and here you guys haven’t been shy at all with your flavours – it works,” Miguel Chan pronounced.
But in the end it all came down to a number, Pete reminded them. In the first round the Blue team came in last, with 71 points, the Yellow team earned 75 and the Green team 77, which put Ian and Sipho’s Red team firmly in first place for the first round with their 89 points.
After the second round points were added and averaged, said Pete, the result ultimately came down to two teams: the Green and the Red. “And the winner of today’s challenge, with an average score of 91, is the Red team,” he announced.
Ian and Sipho had won probably the most valuable reward in the entire competition so far, said Benny Masekwameng, but they would have to wait until the next challenge to find out what it was! “In my mind I’m thinking, let it be the Immunity Pin!” Siphokazi quipped.
The last place in this challenge was a close call between the Blue team and the Yellow team, Pete revealed, with average scores of 77 and 75 respectively. As the losing team, Penny and Francois’s Blue team now faced an Elimination Challenge, after which one of them will be going home.
“I’m really disappointed, but game on,” Penny said bravely. “I’m going to push myself to my limits, really show the judges what I’ve got,” Francois vowed.
MasterChef South Africa is broadcast exclusively on M-Net Channel 101 every Thursday evening at 19:30, and all the episodes of the season so far are available via DStv Catch Up on DStv Explora.