By Chris von Ulmenstein, July 2013

The Macaroon, sorbet, and Panna Cotta dessert, which top Chef David Higgs of Five Hundred restaurant at the Saxon Boutique Hotel prepared for the Pressure Test on MasterChef SA’s 14 th episode last night, was a tough one to replicate, and cost two of the Finalists their aprons in the competition, the final 10 being whittled down to the winner in the next six weeks.

Chef David was introduced by Chef Pete Goffe-Wood as one of our country’s top chefs, who was named as Top Chef and Rust en Vrede Top Service and Top Restaurant in Eat Out’s Top 10 Restaurant Awards in 2010.  Chef David introduced his dish, which he said he had made with one of the country’s top pastry chefs, but the name was not mentioned.   He said that dining is more than about food, and preparing food for it can be tricky and technical too.  A chef is more than just someone cooking, he or she is an artist too. His dessert of liquorice macaroon with a litchi sorbet and litchi panna cotta on
black crumble was exquisite in its presentation.  The Finalists were warned to follow the recipe carefully.  A macaroon must be crunchy on the outside, yet soft and chewy on the inside.  It’s all in the timing, he added.   His dish ‘is difficult but not impossible’,  he said.  The five Finalists in the Pressure Test had 2 hours in which to replicate the dish, and Chef Pete made the shock announcement that two
Finalists would be eliminated.  In doing the rounds at the work stations, Chef David had a kind word for each Finalist, telling them to ‘relax’, and to ‘not get carried away‘, i.e. to not be nervous.

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