In Sunday’s episode of My Kitchen Rules South Africa the contestants were challenged to go water-wise and environment- friendly.
Five of the six cooking pairs were thrown an eco- curveball- a conscience-cooking challenge, where they had to whip up a vegetarian dish in a space of 30 minutes with only four litres of water and unfortunately for Maritsa and Maradine they found themselves in a Sudden Death cook-off against Kim and Pashi, after failing to impress in the conscious-cooking challenge.
The Bloemfontein couple made a sparkling wine poached pear with vanilla sponge cake and vanilla ice cream while Kim and Pashi prepared a sweetcorn ice cream with white chocolate swirl and cumin mielie cake.
“At this stage of the competition, whatever they do with the poached pear has really got to stand out” said Judge David.
Judge David commended Maritsa and Maradine on their technical strengths.
The Bloemfontein couple bids farewell on MKR SA. Picture: Supplied.
“The technique shown today in your dessert, is fit for the professional kitchen” he said, while he lauded Kim and Pashi for using one element, corn, as the hero of the dish.
Ultimately, the differentiating factor between the two desserts was flavour and presentation, where Maritsa and Maradine fell short. Their dessert was traditional and safe and didn’t pack the flavour that it promised which meant that it was the end of the road for their My Kitchen Rules SA journey.
Speaking to the couple, Maritsa said the whole experience on the show was life changing and amazing for them.
“If we could enter again, we would! We loved meeting people with the same love for food as us. We learnt how to be conscious cooks and to appreciate each other more” she said.
Asked about challenges on the show she said some of their challenges were working under pressure in a new environment and the time constraints.
Maritsa said the vegetarian dish was completely out of their comfort zones, and that took them to sudden-death and with their dessert, they were very proud of it and thought they delivered a strong dish.
“We also think that we had chosen a riper pear, we would have delivered on the flavours.
We think we should have stayed because we have so much more that we would have liked to showcase in terms of our technical capabilities and skills” she said.
The couple said they would love for someone from Table 2 to win the competition so they are specifically rooting for Maj and Joleen, as they are the best cooks in their eyes.
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