Sanet minced on MasterChef
Last week, the 13 surviving contestants pulled up outside the MasterChef kitchen on the Nederburg wine estate to face their next challenge: an invention test with various cuts of prime beef.
Unfortunately, this challenge spelled the end of the road for Boksburg’s MasterChef contestant, Sanet Labuschagne (47).
For the challenge, chef Benny Masekwameng explained to the Top 13 that red meat is the most quintessential of South African ingredients, across all cultures. His family slaughters for almost every occasion.
“But, in particular, we slaughter a cow for big events like weddings, where it becomes a three-day eating fest,” Benny explained. “And we use the whole animal.”
“Every piece of the cow awaits you in the pantry today,” chef Pete Goffe-Wood told the Top 13.
“If you think you’re going to get away with steak, egg and chips today you’re sorely mistaken.
“You’ll go straight to the pressure test with that kind of thing.”
Chef Andrew Atkinson told the Top 13 that they would have 90 minutes to create a dish with beef as the hero of the plate, including their run to the pantry to gather ingredients, but the pantry would close after 10 minutes.
The winner of this challenge would win a personalised MasterClass and the bottom three contestants would go into a pressure test, after which someone’s MasterChef dream would come to an end.
Sanet knew exactly what she wanted to do, even though she hadn’t had much experience working with the more expensive cuts of beef.
She wanted to make something simple, but delicious, with mince.
“To turn that into a tasty plate of food … it can definitely go both ways,” she admitted.
Sanet also earned the judges’ ire with her meatball on cannellini beans with spinach, mushroom and tomato sauce.
She had hoped to demonstrate that you can make good food with the contents of a normal pantry at home, but Andrew was not impressed that she simply used tinned cannellini beans and tinned tomatoes.
“I think this dish could have been done in 15 or 20 minutes,” he said.
“It’s uninspired, it’s dull, and it’s badly made,” said Pete, reducing Sanet to tears.
“They absolutely slated it,” she cried.
“I’m absolutely mortified!”
However, even though Sanet’s journey in the MasterChef kitchen has ended, it does not mean that her dream of being a cook has come to an end and, therefore, we hope to hear more of her soon, in Boksburg.
