Last Sunday (12 August) on M-Net’s local reality cooking competition, My Kitchen Rules SA, Dirk and Bahia wowed the discerning celebrity judges with their culinary flavours and technique as well as their beautiful presentation on their Instant Restaurant evening. The gorgeous couple is the first team to receive two nines from the show's tough judges, which placed them in second place on the leaderboard, with a score of 70 points. As a result of Dirk and Bahia’s raving success, Ash and Chris, who stole viewers' hearts a few weeks back, will be heading home.
This means that Maj and Joleen, Maritsa and Maradine, Dirk and Bahia, and Donald and Luyanda will join Kim and Pashi, Jalal and Adrie, Rox and Spoen, and Minnie and Tee at the next round of the competition, which takes place at MKRSA Kitchen HQ, where they face a variety of tough challenges.
This is how Dirk and Bahia’s Instant Restaurant played out:
For starters, they prepared seared scallops, a first for My Kitchen Rules SA! This was served with cauliflower, hazelnuts and burnt saffron butter. Bahia was fully aware that scallops are notoriously difficult to cook, but was willing to take the risk. And it paid off! The celebrity judges raved about the beautifully cooked scallops, although Donald and Luyanda weren’t too impressed, commenting that the dish was “okay”.
For mains, the couple served chicken Chettinad curry with paratha, which, in Donald's opinion, was not a competition dish. The hungry dinner guests had to wait for over 3 hours for their mains, due to Bahia redoing the presentation of the plating a few times. Despite the big delay, they served up a hot curry, which Joleen believed was well worth the wait! Judge J’ ranted that this dish was a highlight for him on MKR – “well balanced and lovely spice,” he said. The sentiment was shared around the table but, to Donald’s dismay, he found a piece of "pink" chicken, which he felt hadn’t cooked through. This put him and Luyanda off the meal completely.
Showing their creativity, for dessert Dirk and Bahia prepared a peanut butter ice cream, served with a raspberry sorbet, berry cremeux, peanut brittle and crumble – an original dessert created by them. Although the dish received mixed reviews around the table, Judge J’ complimented the pair, saying: “If I had to go to a restaurant and received a dessert that looked like this, I would have been really impressed.” Judge David liked the flavours of the raspberry sorbet, but not the texture of the dish.
This week, at the show's Headquarters, the contestants are faced with their first People’s Choice Challenge. In this challenge, the contestants from Table 1 and 2 are split into two brand new teams, where they are required to create the ultimate village feast, in order to win immunity for the next cook-off!
My Kitchen Rules SA is broadcast on M-Net channel 101 every Sunday night at 18:00.
Viewers can watch exclusive interviews with the judges and contestants here.
Follow all the breaking news and conversations around the show on Twitter @MNet / #MKRSA or on the official M-Net Facebook page.