While Ozzy was enjoying his MasterClass in sustainable fishing at the Dyer Island Conservation Trust in Gansbaai, Kamini, Seline and Jason faced off in a Pressure Test at the MasterChef kitchen, recreating Chef Kelvin Joel of the Jozi Maboneng Precinct’s magnificent lemon meringue gateau.
Chef Joel pointed out the different layers of his creation to the three contestants: meringue, mousse, lemon curd, dacquoise sponge, and a choc-chip-cookie base. “There are so many components that go into it,” Kamini observed nervously. “It’s not like any lemon meringue I’ve ever tasted,” she worried.
“It is beautifully layered,” said Seline, admiring Chef Joel’s masterpiece. “It looks like he measured it with a ruler to get everything precisely in the middle, perfectly straight. The layers are all the right thickness… This cake is perfect!”
And when the time came for Seline to unveil her own interpretation of the dish she worried if her layers would be equally perfect. “You can pipe pretty little peaks onto the outside of a cake but when you cut into it, it’s the real stuff that matters, you know?” she said. But judge Andrew Atkinson was quick to reassure Seline that she got the layers “spot-on”. “I think it’s a magnificent attempt. Superb cake,” Pete Goffe-Wood agreed.
Chef Joel liked all the flavours in Kamini’s gateau, “but the meringue is just slightly not shiny enough,” he commented. “But otherwise the execution wasn’t bad,” he told her. This was surprising to the food blogger, as she seemed to have struggled the most out of everyone in the pressure test tonight, having to re-do certain steps of her recipe while time was running out.
But when it was Jason’s turn to present his dessert, Benny Masekwameng explained that he didn’t fold the egg whites into his mousse correctly. “That’s why the mousse is a little on the heavy side and also your dacquoise shrunk and became thin and chewy,” Benny explained. At the Top 5 stage of MasterChef “it’s all or nothing,” Andrew reminded Jason, and so unfortunately this meant the end of Jason’s MasterChef dream.
“It’s the end of the journey now but, you know, I’m Top 5,” Jason commented happily as he said his goodbyes. “I never pictured being in the Top 5 of MasterChef South Africa.”
Do you think Kamini is the judges favourite or did Jason deserve to go?