The remaining six contestants will feel the heat in the next MasterChef South Africa Season 5 cook-off. This piping-hot episode, filled with multiple mind-blowing surprises, premieres on S3 (formerly SABC 3) on Saturday, 19 October at 19:30, with a rebroadcast on SABC 2 on Sunday, 20 October at 18:30 and Wednesday, 23 October at 18:00 on S3.
With the odds shortening in scooping the coveted title of MasterChef and the R1 million prize money, the Top 6 know they must employ all the tools, skills, and creativity in their culinary craft boxes to proceed to the final. But what would happen if the half a dozen who had survived all the culling since twenty home cooks started the competition were tasked to use outlandish techniques to create food wizardry with chemistry?
When the Top 6 open the MasterChef South Africa kitchen this week, they enter unfamiliar territory: a magical realm of smoke and mirrors, fireworks, and trickery.
The mystery of the unusual theatrics, which home cook Lona Rode describes as reminiscent of a Michael Jackson concert, is gradually revealed as the contestants receive their trying task. They must draw inspiration from the popular immersive dining experience trend – the trendy pop-up movement that enchants food lovers with adventurous palates.
To impress the show’s picky judges – Chef Zola Nene, Justine Drake, and Chef Katlego Mlambo—the challenge requires a dish steeped in illusion, deception, secrets, and masquerades between savoury and sweet. However, there’s a snag. The dish, featuring intriguing ingredients from the Pick n Pay Pantry, must be prepared using molecular gastronomy techniques.
But another experiment awaits before the clock starts ticking for their foodie science project. The home cooks receive a box of matches to set a conspicuous card at their workstations on fire.
If you want to discover why and what molecular gastronomy techniques entail, including spherification, powdering and flash freezing, don’t miss this explosive MasterChef South Africa Season 5 episode.
The contestants who are still cooking up a storm: the show’s youngest and oldest competitors, Bridget Mangwandi (20) and Penny Rider (65); the only male still standing, Lona Rode; Durban-born Chanel Brink; teacher and artist Nabila Shamshum; Refe Dimbaza, who was eliminated but then reintroduced to the kitchen.