Cream of the crop curdles in Cyrildene
Six brave individuals were removed from their comfort zones and deposited in a Cyrildene kitchen.
But this was no ordinary kitchen, and it was no ordinary dish the six had to cook. The task laid before the contestants last week – to cook an Asian-inspired dish of duck, with garnishing and spring rolls.
As part of MasterChef’s 22nd episode, the contestants were deposited in what is known to residents from surrounding areas including Bedfordview and Edenvale, as Joburg’s Chinatown – in the heart of Cyrildene.
Besides the usual judges comprising chefs Andrew Atkinson, Pete Goffe-Wood and Benny Masekwameng, the group also had the daunting task of satisfying the taste buds of a panel of Chinese food experts, headed up by chef Chang An Song. Chef Chang, who is from the Tsogo Sun hotel group, is famous for his traditional Peking Duck. He personally presented each of the top six with fortune cookies, which revealed which team they would be in.
Cape Town student, Jason Steel (22) was in the blue team with former video-clerk, Tiron Eloff (34) and Leandri van der Wat (23), a Mahikeng scientist.
Seline van der Wat (25), Johannesburg student Mohammed Azhar “Ozzy” Osman (22) and Cape Town food blogger, Kamini Pather (29) made up the red team.
The teams had to create platter-style duck dishes using Asian flavours as their inspiration. They were provided with their primary protein ingredient, the duck, but had to source the rest of their ingredients themselves from the little shops and street vendors in Cyrildene.
As if they were not under enough pressure already, the guests began arriving. They included Ms Emma Chen and her husband Colin, the owners of the Red Chamber Restaurant in Hyde Park, Mr Li, one of the first Mainland Chinese to open a restaurant in Cyrildene, Miss Chinese South Africa 2013, Miss Sherry Wang, and Mr Erwin Pon, the chairman of the Chinese Association of Gauteng.
“It was a huge task for a team of three to take on cooking traditional Chinese food for ten people. No one was in their comfort zone,” said Ozzy.
At the end, however, the task proved too much for both teams. Some of their dishes were burnt while others just didn’t make the cut.
Chef Pete was not impressed and did not mince his words. He said the food the contestants presented was abysmal.
The red team’s dishes of sweet chilli and sesame duck with wonton crisps, duck neck with honey, ginger and soy sauce, black fried rice, beans and cauliflower, and black sesame cabbage won the day.
Their prize was a chance to visit South Africa’s first MasterChef winner, Deena Naidoo.
The blue team served (burnt and half-full) vegetable spring rolls with sweet-and-sour chilli dipping sauce, vegetarian Asian-style broth, honey-and-soy marinated duck with egg-fried rice, and bok choi with garlic and ginger. This was enough to seal the blue team’s fate, sending them back to the MasterChef Kitchen to fight it out in the elimination challenge.
After the show aired, Mr Pon told the EXPRESS that MasterChef South Africa was a great way to promote Cyrildene. “MasterChef is watched by people all over the country and it was great that this episode showcased Cyrildene. It showed what Cyrildene has to offer and its diverse culture.
“I think Cyrildene will attract more people now that people have seen what it has to offer on television. MasterChef South Africa put the suburb on the map and people know what they can expect,” he said.
Mr Pon said it was great to interact with the contestants and see their take and different styles on Chinese food.
“Cooking is like life, you have to go through it to understand. The contestants understood the culture of Cyrildene and had a feel of what cooking Chinese food is like,” said Mr Pon.
He said it was great meeting the judges. “When you see them on television you make an assumptions about them. It was great to see them face to face. I saw the more human side of them. Chef Pete, for example, is not as fierce as he looks on television. It was interesting interacting with the judges,” said Mr Pon.
He hopes Cyrildene business owners fix their properties, keep them clean and address problems such as illegal dumping, considering that the suburb has much more potential to be a bigger attraction.
