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Babalwa Baartman allows Brandon Law to take control of her destiny.

It takes a strong stomach and plenty of character to win MasterChef SA and for Babalwa Baartman she was lacking in both. There was a moment when she could have said no to Brandon Law’s hair brained scheme to make puff pastry in an elimination round from scratch when there was perfectly good Woolies puff pastry in the pantry.

They had without knowing it secured the easiest of recipes to reproduce, a chicken pie. Ilse Fourie and Manisha Naidu were up a creek without a paddle with a Tripe (ulusu) and phutu pap recipe but somehow managed to put it all together and make Judge Benny Masekwameng a very happy man saying, “The tripe that you made blew me away, you trusted your talent” and “you turned out a lovely dish”

Thys Hattingh and Deena Naidoo faced a similar challenge with their Denningvleis recipe and did enough to stay in the competition.

It was Jade de Waal and Sue-Ann Allen (again) in the dog box with Brandon and Babalwa and it was touch and go. Sue-Ann Allen was an early favourite to challenge for the title, she looks the part, she talks the part but has been cropping up at the bottom of the rung on far too many occasions.

Babalwa Baartman still find the time to smile and say thank you to Pete Goffe-Wood

Babalwa Baartman is out of MasterChef because she did not say no to Brandon, she allowed someone else to pursue a risky course that could only affect her negatively.

She has not set the show alight and was not a serious challenger for the top five but she should have been able to survive for a few more episodes. Her cute smile and laugh will be missed.

Her parting words to Pete Goffe-Wood were, “thank you for everything”

She said later, “this was definitely the beginning of a food dream for me, I have never ever in my life been so consumed by food as I have been here “.

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Brandon Law destroys Babalwa Baartman’s MasterChef SA dream and takes her down with him.

“The Dutch Master” Samantha Nolan remains the driving force in the MasterChef kitchen.

The business end of MasterChef SA is fast approaching as the also rans drop out of the competition one by one. The judging is going to begin to get a little bit more difficult for MasterChef judges, Benny Masekwameng, Pete Goffe-Wood and Andrew Atkinson as they will soon be faced with the prospect of voting out their personal favourites.

Samantha Nolan, described by Deena Naidoo as having an overall understanding and knowledge of food, has a strong personality to add to her culinary talent. Strength of character is a critical personality trait for any individual looking to make it to the top in their chosen profession and of paramount importance during the hustle and bustle of dinner service in a quality kitchen.

Samantha’s natural leadership qualities have led to the formation of two distinct groups in the MasterChef kitchen.

The first is the “Cape Cabal” led by Samantha consisting of fellow Capetonians Sue-Ann Allen, Guy Clark, Ilse Fourie and Jade de Waal. Add Thys Hattingh and Sarel Loots to that list and a very powerful block is formed.

The second can only be described as “The Rest, a disparate bunch of rebels who refuse to succumb to Samantha’s influence with no real leadership and occasional moments of brilliance,

Breaking the Cabal is critical to winning any team challenge as Deena demonstrated on board the SAS Amatola. He quickly cut off the head and made Samantha Nolan his first pick, rapidly followed by Sarel and Jade. This left Thys, Sue, Guy and Ilse without their driving force and as a result found themselves losing the cook off.

Currently the only two who appear to have any chance of beating Samantha to the title are Thys Hattingh and Sue-Ann Allen.

Thys had a quiet start to the competition with desserts being his main strength and failed to impress with mains until the curry challenge in episode six which saw him win a Captains armband for the SAS Amatola challenge. He was a second pick for Samantha during the Harvest challenge and is continually improving.

Despite facing the pressure test on two occasions Sue-Ann is highly regarded by the others, being the first pick for both Samantha and Thys in the team challenges. Regardless of the occasional setback she is a strong performer and is set to go far in the competition.

Further back are Deena Naidoo and Guy Clark, both are consistent in the kitchen and improve week on week. One of them has the potential to spring a real surprise and give the favourites a run for their money.

The rest are making up the numbers at the moment although one cannot completely write of Lungile and Ilse who can both deliver on the day when needed as they did with the pork challenge in episode seven.

Brandon Law and Khaya Silingile have been disappointing after showing early promise, being late picks on two challenges does not install any confidence in their ability to pull this off

One thing we are guaranteed is a cracker jack Top 10 and the defining moment when the Cape Cabal finally turns on one another.

GGS MasterChef Odds

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MasterChef SA favourite Samantha Nolan guides Blue Team to victory in SAS Amatola challenge.

Samantha Nolan continues to dominate the MasterChef kitchen.

Samantha made quick work of her competitors in the taste test with a third round knock out blow as she confidently stepped forward to the Star Anise for her choice in the taste test. The contest had already seen Deena Naidoo taken out at the first hurdle as he, to his complete embarrassment, declared that 99.9% of all curries are made with Ghee. The curry they were tasting was an Indonesian Rendang which traditionally consists of caramelised beef and is rich in spices. What no doubt threw Deena is the that fact that although it is called a curry, Rendang is technically not a curry at all.

Samantha and fellow Cape Cabal members, Sarel Loots and Sue-Anne Allen made their way to the peanut oil along with Khaya Silingile. This caused some confusion amongst the majority who had headed straight for the Ghee with Ilse in particular a little puzzled. Seeing her Red Team compatriots choosing the peanut oil seemed to make her wish that she had held back a bit before making a final decision.

In round two it was Khaya who found herself all alone in front of the Asafoetida, also known as “devils dung”, “stinking gum” and oddly enough “food of the gods”. It is the dried gum from tap roots and originates in Afghanistan. It has a pungent, unpleasant smell when raw, but in cooked dishes, it delivers a smooth flavour,similar to leeks.

In the third round Samantha cleaned up as Sue-Ann and Sarel went for for cloves while it was the Star Anise that would have seen them stay in the mini competition and choose the main ingredient for the curry challenge.

In 2011 CNN International  held an online poll and 35,000 people  chose Rendang as the number one dish of their ‘World’s 50 Most Delicious Foods’ list.

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Samantha Nolan’s team picks reveal Cape Cabal on MasterChef SA

It was earlier today I was reading an article by rugby writer Gavin Rich (an old associate of GGS Ed Andrew Lieber) about the rise of a Blue Bulls Cabal in South African rugby that is reminiscent of the Cape Cabal in the days under Nick Mallet.  It was quite ironic to see similar scenes playing out on MasterChef SA as Samantha Nolan surrounded herself with Cape compatriots for the team challenge.

The first person she called on was Sue-Ann Allen whom she described as having “well balanced flavour combinations” and hot on her heels came Ilse Fourie and Guy Clark whom she credited with “great plating skills”. The only reason she could not land Jade de Waal is because she was Manisha Naidu’s first pick.

Samantha Nolan stated from the outset that she “had to be strategic about it” and have an all rounder team although that could possibly read “all round her” team as she ensured fellow Capetonians were right by her side for the Team Challenge.

MasterChef SA Cape Cabal

Manisha described Jade as the most creative person on the show and made sure she was the first pick, followed quickly by Berdina Schurink and Lungile Nhalanhla.

It was bad news for the last five contestants as they soon discovered exactly what Samantha and Manisha thought of their cooking skills. It was a big surprise for us to see Brandon Law still standing there waiting to be picked along with Babalwa Baartman, Mmutsi Maseko, Lwazi Mngoma and Khaya Silingile. Perhaps we will see similar scenes playing out when it comes to team selection for the Springboks first test against England later this year.

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MasterChef SA Episode Five Wrap | Berdina Schurink’s lamb lands her on the chopping block.

Berdina Schurink runs out of time. Leaves MasterChef SA underdone.

Manisha Naidu curries favour with the MasterChef Judges and catapults into episode five.

Berdina Schurink crashes out of MasterChef SA in unspectacular fashion with underdone Rack of Lamb.

It was the second week in a row that Berdina Schurink found herself having to deal with a pressure test after presenting the judges with uncooked meringue on her tart in episode four of MasterChef SA. She easily trumped the koeksister challenge that day and survived to move on to the Team Challenge.

This week she found herself facing the pressure challenge in dramatic fashion after the MasterChef Judges threw another curve ball at the contestants by announcing that they must decide who the bottom three are to fight it out for survival. Nobody wanted to start naming names and they left it to team captain Manisha Naidu to choose the bottom three. After naming Mmutsi Maseko and Berdina Schurink she went on to bizarrely announce that she would fall on her “cake knife” and take the final spot.

Time management would appear to be Berdina’s greatest weakness in the kitchen. As with last weeks meringue she ran out of time with the Coco Reinahrz Fusion Lamb, spending too much time preparing meat that she would not even need.

After failing to manage her time keeping two weeks in a row the “recipe” was on the wall. Judge Andrew Atkinson praised her for the presentation but that she was going home. The great tragedy for Berdina in this challenge is that she prides herself on cooking lamb and Pete Goffe-Wood pointed out the she had really impressed in the hot audition with her Coriander Marinated Lamb Rack with a Red Wine and Tomato Reduction Served with Pap and Morogo Recipe.

Berdina described the experience as a “compressed learning curve” and to be “around so many people that are passionate about something that you are passionate about is an absolutely amazing experience”.

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