Front-runner and fan favourite Naledi bade the show a sad farewell
Based on the latest startling MasterChef South Africa challenge results, it’s anyone’s guess who will win the gruelling cooking contest and scoop up the R1 million prize money.
Refe Dimbaza, the wild card who re-entered the MasterChef kitchen after being ousted in the Top 10 round, surprisingly presented the best dish of the day. At the same time, three contestants frequenting the top rungs of the culinary ladder fell to the bottom, awaiting their fate.
The trio that failed to impress the judges this week was Muldersdrift homemaker Naledi Matshitse, whose marvellous meals earned her an elimination-free spot on the gantry an unprecedented four times, as well as MasterChef South Africa’s two youngest contenders, Bridget Mangwandi and Nabila Shamshum.
Ultimately, Naledi, a forced-to-be-reckoned-with and firm fan favourite since her triumph at the first official challenge of the season, had to say her goodbyes.
The challenge that sent Naledi home.
This week, guest judge Chef Ebie du Toit, the hip head chef at one of the swankiest restaurants in the country, The Pot Luck Club in Rosebank, Johannesburg, gave the Top 7 a glimpse of his bespoke bougee brunch spreads savoured by millennials and Gen Z. In other words, those beautifully plated bite-size delights accompanied by Mimosas and cocktails that turn heads on Instagram.
The Season 5 s were then tasked to take inspiration from Chef Ebie’s spread, creating three bougee brunch items to take him and the show’s three judges –
Zola Nene, Chef Katlego Mlambo and Justine Drake – on “a trip to Flavour Town”.
The required dishes were a brunch classic with some swag, a reimagination of a classic brunch cocktail presented as a dish, and a luxurious riff on avo toast.
To whip up their luxurious, eye-catching bites, the Top 7 had full access to the Pick n Pay Pantry, and the Avo Grower’s Association delivered a stash of top-grade avocadoes. However, the scary time limit for this assignment was a mere two hours.
How the challenge played out.
Despite being born into Gen Z, the challenge put 23-year-old Nabila in a tailspin. Instead of fluttering the digital-crazy social food scene, the young artist and teacher is a homebody who prefers painting and spoiling her mixed-heritage Afrikaans and Arabic family with spicy, hearty dishes. Furthermore, Nabila, a teetotaler, was stressed about the cocktail dish.
Refe, who prides herself on her rustic, ample servings, also entered the challenge, doubting her ability to pull off the finesse needed for such upmarket food fare. Meanwhile, MasterChef South Africa’s oldest home cook, 68-year-old Penny Rider, a Baby Boomer, was cognisant of the generational culinary cliff she had to climb. Even social media influencer Chanel Brink was spooked by the challenge, wondering if she would live up to Chef Ebie’s high standards.
However, nobody was more freaked out than Naledi. “Bougee, bougee! What is bougee?” Naledi panicked. “With three kids in the house, we don’t do bougee.”
Initially, the flustered Naledi had no plan, but after some serious self-talk, she decided to breathe and just elevate the food she makes at home. That’s why she attempted a Piña colada with pap for her cocktail dish.
On the contrary, Eastern Cape’s Lona Rode was not too fazed—until he had to reconceptualise some flops on his menu.
But Bridget, a bougee aficionado herself, was as cool as a cucumber throughout the challenge. The cook-off was right up her food alley. By the time the contestants served their cuisine to the judges, she thought combining Durbanville Hills Champagne Sec with oranges was a stroke of genius. Not to mention using crayfish on her avo toast. Bridget rated her nouveau avocado offering as an 8 out of 10, her Crayfish Eggs Benedict as an 8.5, and her Mimosa as a 9.
Chef Ebie and the judges didn’t mince their words.
For the first time in the competition, the judges were gutted by the overall standard of cooking. Their critique was harsh, and judge Justine was particularly irritated. She commented that despite the fantastic ingredients in the Pick n Pay Pantry and riotous amounts of fabulous avocadoes, they ended up with an enormously disappointing delivery. “What we got was confusion. It was almost as if they took the luxury ingredients, tossed them over, overcooked them and then called it something else,” Justine said.
Bridget’s spread was not as beautiful and appetising as she imagined. “It just looks sad,” Chef Ebie commented. She would definitely not be named “the face of bougee”, as she envisioned. Although Bridget waxed her dessert, her other dishes were clumsy. Chef Katlego couldn’t cut the avo toast, and the hollandaise was raw.
Despite Nabila’s design background reflecting in the plating of her tasty, sweet dish as well as her Salmon Seviche, she overcooked the fish, and her Avo Flatbread was an afterthought disaster, as Nabila expected. It lacked seasoning and proper knife skills.
Naledi was a bundle of nerves when presenting her brunch, and for good reason. She didn’t crack the bougee brief at all. “When Chef Ebie sent everyone on a flavour trip, the bus was going north, but this bus went south,” Chef Katlego sighed. While the judges loved the flavour of her Piña Colada and pap dessert, her knife skills didn’t do her justice and putting forward a sandwich for a bougee brunch was not good enough. The caramelised onions were lovely, but the bread was overtoasted, and the disheartening and dry chicken lacked seasoning.
In this round, even challenge winner Refe’s serving was not perfect. Even though Chef Ebie wanted to steal her Grapefruit Mimosa Granita, and her Shakshuka with chorizo and quail eggs were a taste bud sensation, Refe’s avo and chocolate truffles confused the judges.
MasterChef South Africa,Season 5, proudly sponsored by Pick n Pay, where fresh ingredients take centre stage, premieres on S3 on Saturdays at 19:30. The rebroadcasts are on SABC 2 on Sundays at 18:30 and S3 on Wednesdays at 18:00.