On Sunday’s episode of My Kitchen Rules SA, sisters from Winterton, Rox and Spoen, became the first team to make it through to the final round of the competition.
This comes after the siblings took on food buddies, Donald and Luyanda in the first semi-final, where their flavourful three-course menu earned them high scores from the show's resident judges and the expert guest judging panel who included Reuben Riffel, Vanessa Marx, Karen Dudley and Lentswe Bhengu.
Rox and Spoen put forward a pleasing three-course menu that showcased their talent for cooking with vegetables.
For their first course, they presented an aubergine dip with flatbreads and dukkah sprinkle.
Their main dish was a lamb rack with grilled cauliflower, onion and garlic puree, brussel sprouts and mushrooms.
Dessert was a flavour-packed pumpkin ice-cream with ginger biscuit crumb and salted caramel and the judges loved the dishes.
Rox and Spoen are off to the finals of My Kitchen Rules SA. Picture: Supplied. It was an unfortunate round for buddies Donald and Luyanda, whose dishes failed to impress.
For starters, they served biltong-crusted venison carpaccio which wasn't the prettiest or tastiest dish for the judges, who were blind tasting all of the dishes.
For the main, they served seared kingklip, which the judges felt the plating didn’t make sense and the kingklip was unfortunately not cooked through.
Dessert was a malva pudding which judge, Karen said was not at all what a malva pudding should be, sending them home after Rox and Spoen garnered a grand overall score of 42 out of 60, beating Donald and Luyanda by a whopping 11 points.
Sadly, we say goodbye to Donald & Luyanda tonight. Congrats to Rox and Spoen for making the #MKRSA Finals! Here’s a look at how our judges scored the teams.
— M-Net (@MNet) September 23, 2018 Speaking to the buddies, Donald said working in a team is not always the easiest especially if you’re partnered with a friend and adds that the competition tested their friendship.
However, they both agreed that the experience was amazing and admit that the pressure in the kitchen and the time constraints got to them.
Donald says: "communication and trusting yourself is extremely important. Simple is always the way to go but give it your own twist. We learned a lot about ourselves, working in a pressured environment, different ways of cooking and to be more conscious-cooks. We did very well in the competition having won all the People’s Choice challenges, and we also grew so much from where we started at the Instant Restaurant phase."
Of the remaining teams, the buddies said they hope Maj and Joleen win the season as they believe they are by far the best cooks on the show and showed more skill than anyone.
Rox said to get this far has been a blessing for them and they are happy to make their small town of Winterton proud.
"We love our cooking style and cooking for those we love but we would never have said it's competition - final standard! To be in the final is a real honour and to cook for these judges (Reuben!!) is a once in a lifetime opportunity," she says.
The sisters said winning or not they have already decided on dates for three pop up restaurants so they will be starting those and seeing if they enjoy them and how well they go.