Dining with Mike

Ballito’s Mike Gahagan recently chatted with the Courier about his experience on the critically acclaimed third season of Come Dine With Me South Africa on BBC Entertainment.
A competition to find the ultimate dinner party host, the show follows four people who have never previously met who visit each other’s homes, sample each other’s cooking, and pass judgement on their fellow competitors’ entertaining skills.
“I went into the show knowing full well that my cooking skills were not that great. I only got into it two year ago and when I started cooking the neighbours’ dogs stopped coming to my house for food,” said Mike.
Each night for a week the contestants take it in turns to cook up their idea of the perfect evening. As the guests travel home they give their verdict, and crucially, a mark out of ten. The contestant with the most points at the end of the week wins a cash prize.
“I was up against serial prankster and HR manager Zeyn Lovell, self-proclaimed ‘ghetto gorgeous’ administrator Lerato Morabe and a sassy sound engineer,  Lisa Partington. That made me the oldest of the bunch.”
Mike had to host an Italian themed evening and his plan was to wow his guests with his wine collection from his cellar. However to his surprise, two of his guests said they did not drink.
“When Zeyn and Lerato said they did not drink I had to re-strategise and think of non-alcoholic drinks that could go with my meals. After all that planning and replanning they ended up wanting to try out the wines in my original menu and the evening was a blast after all,” said Mike.
He wowed them with a delicious cheese and fig starter and a surprise wine steward session. Mike was such a gracious host that he even set an extra place setting – a kitty litter box for Simba, Zeyn’s non existent dead cat.  The cat had been an ongoing joke between the contestants during the show.
“Going into the competition my plan was  not to come last. But in the end I shared first place with Zeyn, to my and everybody’s surprise.”