After a humble spud in an air fryer surprisingly halted multiple challenge winner Tebogo Mabye’s MasterChef South Africa journey last week, only ten contestants remain in the competition. This week, these ten home cooks, who have now reached the show’s halfway mark, will be confronted by another South African vegetable patch star. The MasterChef South Africa spotlight moves from the previous week’s potato to comforting cabbage.
Upon arriving in the MasterChef kitchen, the Top 10 will be presented with a unique avant-garde “MasterChef sculpture” containing an array of veggies representing the cabbage family – from the South African staple green cabbage (ikahbishi) to broccoli, Brussel sprouts, kale, and even Chinese cabbage.
However, there is a huge surprise awaiting the Top 10. Whoever presents the most tasty and comfortable cabbage dish to MasterChef South Africa judges – Justine Drake, Chef Zola Nene, and Chef Katlego Mlambo – will win a whopping R50,000.
The catch? The Top 10’s cabbage creations must be gourmet and worthy of elevating a restaurant’s plant-food-based menu. The task will also test the home cooks’ ability to play around with different textures and showcase their understanding of the varied flavours of these different cabbage types.
As judge Justine explains, “Cabbage can be peppery, sweet, flat and musty and can be steamed, roasted, braaied, grilled and fermented.”
Who will manage to whip up an R50k-worthy cabbage feast? And who will be thwarted by their understanding of this multi-faceted vegetable?
To date, the competition has been a roller-coaster ride for many of the top ten MasterChef South Africa contestants, and often, those at the top rung of the show’s cuisine ladder in one week fall to the bottom at the next challenge.
The contestants who are still in the running to scoop up the coveted title of MasterChef at the end of Season 5 as well as the winning prize money of R1million are Amo, Bridget, Chanel, Lona, Nabila, Naledi, Nash, Penny, Refe and Shreya.
MasterChef South Africa Season 5 is proudly sponsored by Pick n Pay, where you’ll find only the freshest vegetables, and is produced by Homebrew Films for Primedia Studios.
The premiere episodes of MasterChef South Africa are aired on S3 (previously SABC 3) on Saturdays at 19:30, with rebroadcasts on Sundays at 18:30 on SABC 2 and Wednesdays at 18:00 on S3.