Pepper gets Sanet safely through

Boksburg’s champion cook, Sanet Labuschagne, a 47-year-old financial manager, worked in the red team, coming up against the blue team.

After ending up in the elimination round the previous week, Sanet observed: “We have such a point to prove! We are so going to win this!”

Their challenge was to prepare one savoury and one dessert pizza for 10 of South Africa’s top food bloggers, out of Cape Town’s latest culinary craze: food trucks.

MasterChef judge Pete Goffe-Wood explained that food trucks are mobile kitchens that move to different locations to produce and serve gourmet cuisine to locals and tourists alike.

“It’s a funky, affordable alternative to traditional restaurants,” he added.

As soon as the teams decamped for their trucks, to start cooking, each team member was given a specific task to do, and Sanet had to take care of the tomato base for the pizzas.

The red team’s savoury pizza would contain duck, chorizo and caramelised onions, topped with fresh salad.

For their dessert pizza they were planning a topping of stone fruit with thyme and white chocolate ganache.

The red team was up first to serve their crispy duck and chorizo pizza with caramelised onions and rocket to the bloggers, and it was a hit!

At the halfway point in the competition the red team was ahead with nine votes out of 10 for their savoury pizza, to the blue team’s one solitary vote.

But there were still the dessert pizzas to bake and serve. And the red team’s lead was melting as fast as their chocolate in the hot pizza oven, while the blue team seemed to have cracked the mysteries of pizza oven cooking.

The final scores after both rounds were 11 to nine, in favour of the blue team.

For one of them it marked the end of their MasterChef dream.

“I don’t mind losing; I just didn’t want to be in the elimination round,” Sanet admitted sadly. “It’s just so much pressure.”

The red team then had to go into an elimination test.

Sanet correctly identified garlic flakes and ginger and had to battle it out for the final, safe slot, tasting a crumbed fish finger.

She immediately recognised Robertson’s dried parsley in that dish, but struggled with the red spice.

“I know it’s either peri-peri or it’s cayenne pepper,” Sanet deliberated, and went with the cayenne pepper.

This decision won her the final safe spot up on the gallery.

MasterChef South Africa Season 2 is broadcast on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

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