Nederburg to host MasterChef shoot

MasterChef South Africa is promising one of the most beautiful settings for its debut series, beginning on M-Net on Tuesday, 20 March, with the high-profile Nederburg winery the star venue of the reality TV cooking show.
“This could well be the loveliest venue ever chosen for a MasterChef series anywhere in the world,” says Anne Davis, M-Net’s senior commissioning editor of the series.
“We wanted to shoot in the Winelands because Cape vineyards are immediately recognisable to local and international viewers as distinctly South African. The Western Cape is also the culinary capital of South Africa and has great access to fresh produce. We obviously also wanted good weather and the Cape summer offers a very favourable climate. Nederburg was able to provide everything we were looking for.”
The Paarl winery, set against the dramatic Drakenstein Mountains, has revamped its world-renowned Johann Graue Auction Hall, the annual venue for its famous Nederburg Auction, equipping it as the kitchen for the show that will be broadcast weekly over 18 weeks.
The 1 000 m² venue will be where most of the show’s action will take place but it is also close enough to any off-site challenges in which the contestants will be involved.
Davis says the overhaul of the Nederburg auction hall had been an extensive process. There are over 20 cooking stations equipped with state-of-the-art appliances and utensils.
“To create the floor and the walls, over 15 tons of wood was sourced locally, while 5km of underfloor cabling has been used and the garden around the area has been beautifully landscaped. The final result is really impressive!”
Suné van der Merwe, Distell’s category manager for wines (including Nederburg) in South Africa, says “Nederburg is surrounded by gorgeous gardens, vineyards and sweeping views of the mountains. The historic and contemporary buildings create an exciting blend of classical and modern, and altogether this is a very appealing and attractive location. We are very proud of its starring role.”
Nederburg, established in 1791, is South Africa’s most awarded winery and the official wine sponsor of MasterChef South Africa. Its prize to South Africa’s first MasterChef will include a customised sommelier course, one-on-one master classes in wine presented by Nederburg’s cellarmaster Razvan Macici (poctured above), and a year’s supply of Nederburg Winemaster’s Reserve Wines.
Last year Nederburg was chosen as the Platter’s South African Wine Guide Winery of the Year for having the highest number of five-star wines. This year it shares the honours with two other wineries.
M-Net’s Davis said the MasterChef set would be closed to the public until production of the series was concluded.