Natarah takes on Deena Naidoo in the kitchen!
Nats and Deena were asked to lead a team of staff in Nino’s kitchen to prepare a scrumptious three course meal for about 200 people.
Patrons were given the option of going for Natarah’s menu or Deena’s meals.
Nats worked with Chris Glock and his stellar team to produced delicious phyllo pastry cigars and triangles filled with either butternut or mince (slow cooked for six hours).
For her main, Nats delivered a 200g sirloin with creamy mushroom sauce, chips and mediterranean vegetables to her guests followed by decadent slices of strawberry cheesecake and melt-in-your-mouth peppermint crisp tart.
Each dish was scored out of 10 by diners. Natarah achieved a fantastic total of 2 335 but fell 21 points short of Deena’s winning score of 2 356. Wow, that was close Nats! Well done!
@NatarahNadesan vs @deenamcsa @GatewayUmhlanga #CelebrityChefShowdown pic.twitter.com/0kgoWkTyv8
— sane ndlovu (@NdlovuSane) September 10, 2014
Pre Show #selfie #CelebChefShowdown @GatewayUmhlanga @NatarahNadesan pic.twitter.com/pT9OclhMQJ
— Terence Pillay (@terencepillay1) September 10, 2014
Starters served! @NatarahNadesan @deenamcsa @terencepillay1 @ecr9495 #celebchefshowdown pic.twitter.com/KdFZVymtjf
— Gateway (@GatewayUmhlanga) September 10, 2014
The Master Chef himself doing a taste test #celebchefshowdown @deenamcsa @terencepillay1 @NatarahNadesan @ecr9495 pic.twitter.com/cuIsuI8VqT
— Gateway (@GatewayUmhlanga) September 10, 2014
And the winner is....@deenamcsa! #celebchefshowdown @NatarahNadesan @terencepillay1 @ecr9495 @MasterChef_SA pic.twitter.com/5ecybJIwpb
— Gateway (@GatewayUmhlanga) September 10, 2014
“It was an exhausting evening. I had a brilliant team working with me behind the scenes, so I felt pretty invincible. It was an eye-opening experience as well. I had no idea how insanely busy it can be inside restarurant kitchens. I want to say thank you to everyone who came out to support me last night, you really made my night! Also, to Chris Glock and the stellar team at Nino’s, big respect and love to you guys! I will definitely be back although this time, I think I’ll be eating the food and not preparing it!” says Nats.
Deena will go into the finals, also taking place at Gateway, next month. The grand winner will receive all the money raised from the Celebrity Chef Showdown which will be donated to the charity of their choice.