Lunch with new MasterChef SA judge

THE RESTAURANT CHEF

He’s young, ever so stylish and has an alluring smile —a perfect match for his new “celeb” status. I’m talking about a cool dude, Chef Katlego Mlambo who I met up with at Flames Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel (previously The Westcliff) in Joburg for lunch last week. He had just returned from wrapping up the filming the Season 5 of MasterChef SA in Cape Town, where his role is the new judge of the series which aired on TV from last night. 

Chef Kat — as he likes to be called — is on a roll. He was recently appointed the new executive chef of the Four Seasons Flames restaurant and is back in the kitchen, a job he relishes, except today he’s on the receiving end of his kitchen as we, my request, sat down to lunch in the hotel restaurant. Though he really is a “celebrity chef”, his passion is cooking, and leading and inspiring a chefs brigade, and is delighted about his new role at the hotel. “I loooove cooking, he said with a big smile, it’s part of my DNA.” 

We kicked off lunch with a couple of dishes to share, his fave picks off the menu: 6 large fresh Saldanha Bay oysters which came with different toppings — yuzu (citrusy) pearls; chimichurri dressing and a Champagne granita.

They were delicious and perfect palate cleansers, while we sipped on one of his fave lunchtime tipple, an easy drinking wine from the Babylonstoren stable, a Mourvedre Rose. The other starter was an aubergine tataki. A tataki is a Japanese invention usually made using thin slices of tuna. This one, a vegetarian option, is made with aubergine slices marinated in a zesty Asian marinade, then fried till beautifully crispy and served with an avo purée and jalapeño gel.

We talked, the wine flowed and mains arrived: pan seared salmon, cooked to perfection, rare inside, crispy outside, served on a bed of couscous with burnt cauliflower and a Cape Malay veloute. And then the chef had selected his favourite hearty main course with a local spin: roasted rounds of lamb saddle, meltingly tender and juicy with crispy fat coating served carrots, chakalaka and charred pap. Delicious.

SA CHEF WORKING IN LONDON

The last time I saw Chef Kat was early 2023. It was at a dinner at the Marabi Club in Doornfontein, a popular jazz club and restaurant where he was the executive chef. A couple of months later he grabbed an opportunity to work at Kudu, a South African restaurant in London.

“Amazing restaurant but not for me. I returned to SA a couple of months later feeling bruised, my tail between my legs. I felt I’d let myself down and had failed. I got back (to SA) and knew I needed time to fix myself,” said Chef Kat, who then took off a couple of months to find his feet before seeking out new opportunities. 

THE CELEBRITY CHEF

Chef Kat talked about his role in the new series of MasterChef SA and how it all came to be. It all happened late last year when licking his wounds on his return to SA. He was surprised to receive a call from Paul Venter, MD of production company Homebrew films. Venter asked if he would consider coming to Cape Town to discuss his potential role as judge in the upcoming fifth season of the popular cooking show.

He would join judges Zola Nene and Justine Drake from the previous season. In sharing the story, Chef Kat described his initial shock on receiving the call, the disbelief and then the unbelievable ecstasy about the incredible opportunity that was coming his way. “It was meant to be", he said. “I’m VERY excited to be on TV.”  

Without giving too much away, he spilt some of the beans on MasterChef SA Season 5,  and speaks glowingly of the contestants. “They were so inspiring. MasterChef SA is such an amazing journey. Imagine taking a risk, choosing to lose your job to cook for six weeks, knowing you may or may not win the million rand,” he said.

I learnt that there were over a 1,000 entries. It is the content team’s job to whittle the number down to 60, and then 30 wannabe contestants, which was done via Skype interviews. Then it was the trio of judges who got the final say on the top 20 candidates, and this was done with a cook off.

Chef Kat tested the hopefuls by asking them to make an omelette. “You can gauge so much from a simple omelette,” he said, adding that apart from cooking skills, they were looking for contestants with personality.

Chef Kat was amazed at the top 20 contestants’ skills, how amateur cooks could conjure up amazing creations and get them on the plate — and in most cases on time. “In the MasterChef Kitchen, the clock waits for no-one,” he said.

I learnt that there are masterclasses for the top 20 before the filming of the show and how impressed Chef Kat was of the great team behind the production. “It is one of the most authentic shows,” he said using adjectives like “amazing”, “supportive”, “professional”.

He talked about the culinary team behind the scenes, lead by well-known Cape Town food writer and stylist Herman Lategan, the sponsors highlighting the main line sponsor Pick n Pay and the incredible produce to grocery basics, meat, poultry, dairy, seafood the retailer provided for the contestants. “It was a feast. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a no expenses spared production.”

Was there a flavour that emerged as dominant in the contestants cooking for Chef Kat? Unsurprisingly it was that powerful and uber trendy spice, chilli. “For the contestants to shine, their flavours had to be punchy and loud,” he said.

“My biggest shock came when realising that in watching MasterChef SAyou think the show is a  rehearsed production. It's not. MasterChef SAis a cooking competition where you have to be the best on the day, and the contestants are very much only as good as their last meal.

“You have to be, to stand a chance of winning R1 million in this thrilling cooking competition with many twists and turns. A million rand for isx weeks of cooking? Wow! Many chefs in this country won’t see that amount of money in their working lives,” said an excited Chef Katlego.

Catch the 20-episode fifth season of MasterChef SA on SABC’s S3, Saturdays at 7.30pm.

Four Seasons Hotel Flame Restaurant, 67 Jan Smuts Ave, Westcliff, Joburg. Reservations: flamesrestaurant.co.za