It’s been a long, hard journey for Justin Bonello but he is a man on a mission. Just past the half-way mark with the second season of The Ultimate Braai Master (Wednesdays on SABC3 at 8.30pm), he’s delighted they’ve upped the ante and improved on the first season, but is already looking ahead and brainstorming for the third season.
“Who would have thought two Afrikaans West Coast boys could become best buddies with two chicks from Soweto?” he muses about the barriers that came tumbling down.
This South African braai series celebrates the country, its people, and arguably its favourite way of making food – on a fire.
“If anyone had a choice, would they have a meal inside or relax around the fire with a glass of wine?”
He has always known that fire is the great leveller when you have foodies, chefs and home cooks in competitive mode. He recalls a weekend away with his two judges, both award-winning chefs, when both pulled out all the stops to prepare a dish on the braai.
“They both finished it in the kitchen,” he says.
The fire always has the final say.
If Bonello had his way, he would never have been in front of the cameras.
“I love my privacy,” he says.
But he is part of the concept, the glue that keeps it all together. With this second series, he wanted to focus more on the contestants and have viewers get to know them.
This latest book, The Ultimate Braai Master, carries the same credo. It involves everyone.
“I’ve been together with my crew from the beginning,” he says.
All of them came with ideas, and while the contestants make great dishes, he wanted to broaden the scope with chefs Bertus Basson and Marthinus Ferreira also brought into the mix.
When the three of them got together to thrash out the challenges for this current season, they were thinking about ways to ruin the contestants lives. It’s all about pressure and who copes best with the bush experience when we get down to the nitty gritty.
“It’s not about making fancy foods,” says Bonello, who is adamant that he has always labelled himself a cook rather than a chef. He acknowledges that he has learnt along the way.
“Practice makes perfect with understanding. I was lucky that I played with food.”
It’s not only what we see on screen, there is a lot of travel happening in between in a country that Bonello loves showcasing. The series has been bought by the Travel Channel and is broadcast all over the world. The concept was also recently sold so we probably haven’t got long to wait for the Ultimate Barbecue Master pops up somewhere.
Bonello delights in unveiling this amazing land to his people.
“It’s a revelation to many,” he says. “Most South Africans don’t understand what we have on our doorstep.”
This is a journey of who we are.
When it comes to selecting the contestants, everyone is chosen on merit.
“It’s an audition process and sometimes some slip through because we’re on a roll, but they make mistakes early on,” he explains. He believes that most people want to stand up and be counted at some stage in their life.
“That’s what reality TV can do,” he notes. “It’s an attempt to gain a bigger identity, and here they can do it with food.”
But as in the cookbook which gives loads of advice, the two chefs/judges regularly have debates about different cooking methods or how they spice their meat, for example, before cooking or once the meat has been done.
He describes himself as a natural cook “with a social consciousness”, and that leads to his next project. Talk is cheap but he wants action.
“I’m someone with lots of single-mindedness. My shows are all about my life, and currently I’m obsessed with the urban environment that has lost touch with its rural roots.”
He wants people in the townships to start growing their own produce. It’s a no-brainer in a country where children still suffer from malnutrition.
“Local restaurants and business must buy into the concept of urban farming, and those growing the produce must also make the money. We’ve put men on the moon, we should be able to figure out how to create wealth,” he argues.
As someone who spends most of his time thinking about food, he knows this is an easy route to go. “It’s forgotten knowledge that has to be revived.
“We have to grow produce in the city that is sold and eaten in the city.”
With both the series and the cookery books, his zeal is unstoppable.
“We have a massive braai culture. I have a bunch of simple ways to have a good time. All of them involve fire.”
On the side he’s also busy finishing a short series (six episodes) on the Karoo titled Digging Under The Skin of the Karoo, which is a window into the Karoo and how it has changed. Watch out for it next year. And for the next Braai Master season and book…