Mr Chicken’s wings are clipped: Ntobeko exits MasterChef South Africa during a tropical adventure
The beloved MasterChef South Africa “Zulu gang” lost its first member this week when Ntobeko Dlamini (28), an industrious Jozi entrepreneur originally from Wakkerstroom in Mpumalanga, had to hang up his apron. Since the start of the competition, Ntobeko and fellow contestants Simele and Nkululeko had formed a highly entertaining brotherhood, delighting viewers with their camaraderie, their love of rich, meaty flavours, and the judges’ frequent attempts to get them to tap into their feminine side in their food presentations.
Ntobeko was also dubbed the show’s “Mr Chicken“, but his culinary prowess stretched far beyond poultry perfection. Week after week, the judges praised his delicious dishes, which regularly earned him a place among the day’s best cooks. Beyond his top-notch servings, Ntobeko caught everyone’s attention with his boundless energy, offbeat humour and animated, unfiltered storytelling. He was the one who proclaimed that cooking in the MasterChef South Africa kitchen all boils down to repeatedly using the “F-word.” “F for Flavour“, as he then explained.
Unfortunately, a rare off day in the kitchen clipped Mr Chicken’s wings.
Although the MasterChef South Africa home cooks embarked on a tropical adventure this week, it was most definitely no holiday from the pressure.
It all began with an unusual taste test to determine which four of the Top 8 contestants would relax on the gantry and which four would be stranded in the elimination challenge.
With their sight and touch compromised, the MasterChef South Africa home cooks had to select one of several similar-looking jelly spheres, each infused with a distinct tropical flavour and differing in colour. One by one, they then had to identify the flavour using only taste and smell.
Ntobeko chose a yellow sphere and identified it as lime. It was, in fact, naartjie.
As a result, he joined Shoki, Simele and Nkululeko in the elimination challenge after they, too, misidentified their flavours.
These four contestants were then tasked with creating a tropical-inspired dish, with equal emphasis on flavour and presentation, from an open pantry stocked with the most beautiful island-inspired bibs and bobs.
But there was a twist: the flavour each contestant had misidentified had to be the star of their dish.
With that, it became a naartjie nightmare for Ntobeko. Growing up, naartjies were a luxury for him and had never featured in his food-making repertoire.
For the first time since entering the competition, Ntobeko appeared short on ideas. While he would normally enter a challenge with a clear plan, this time he found himself busking. But the naartjies were not his only obstacle. He also admitted he was feeling homesick.
Ntobeko’s initial plan was to make a mango and naartjie sorbet, but he later decided to switch to ice cream.
However, he had never used the ice-cream machine before and had to rely on the contestants on the gantry to talk him through the process. When he later realised the machine was not operating properly, he transferred the mixture to the blast chiller and hoped for the best. To make matters worse, the blender also gave him trouble.
Despite the setbacks, Ntobeko managed to complete his dish before time ran out: Naartjie and mango ice cream with pistachio crumble, naartjie syrup and candied naartjie zest.
The judges enjoyed the pistachio crumble and found the ice cream tasty, but sadly the mango overpowered the supposed hero ingredient, resulting in what the judges described as a “mango-only” ice cream. While judge Zola Nene commended the concept behind the naartjie syrup, she felt it was far too sticky. Judge Justine Drake, meanwhile, expected more from the presentation.
So, Ntobeko’s dish fell short in both flavour and presentation.
While Ntobeko’s dish shipwrecked his dream of becoming the next MasterChef South Africa winner, Simele served “paradise on a plate“.
His disappointment at not drawing mango during the jelly tasting challenge — after deliberately selecting a yellow-tinted sphere in the hope that it contained the fruit — turned into a tropical triumph.
The judges praised the way Simele celebrated sweetcorn with a prawn dish through a delicious purée and a gentle char on both the kernels and the cob. They also applauded the presentation, describing it as a feast for the eyes that delivered exactly what the challenge required.
Next week, it gets spicy in the kitchen with hard-as-nails investigative journalist Devi Sankaree Govender as the guest judge. Who will curry favour with her and judges Zola Nene, Chef Katlego Mlambo and Justine Drake?
MasterChef South Africa Season 6 keeps e.tv viewers on the knife’s edge every Sunday at 18:00, with rebroadcasts on the channel on Saturdays at 17:00, and additional airings on eExtra on Saturdays at 20:30 and on eReality on Sundays at 17:00.
While e.tv is available on free-to-air, the channel is also hosted on all DStv packages on DStv’s channel 194, and the CatchUp episodes will be on eVOD (watch.evod.co.za) from the day after the premiere episode. eReality is available on Openview.
Represented internationally by Banijay Entertainment, MasterChef is the world’s most successful cookery television format (Guinness World Records). Now commissioned across 71 markets, the life-changing show has aired over 700 seasons and more than 16,000 episodes to date. Created by Franc Roddam and first launched in 1990, the superbrand is known and enjoyed worldwide.
MasterChef South Africa is produced by the multi-award-winning production company Homebrew Films for Primedia Studios. The series was once again filmed at Atlantic Studios in Cape Town.
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