Image: Charlie Sperring
by Jan-Hendrik Botha
In the latest episode, we paid tribute to South Africa’s culinary queen and food goddess: the late Dorah Sitole, who passed away unexpectedly on January 3rd, 2021 at the early age of 65. Not only was this episode a tribute to Mama Sitole, but to all African gogos around South Africa cooking up seven colours in their kitchens.
Gogo Dorah, according to Sli, was like a gogo to the nation, “especially if you love food and you grew up being cooked for by your mother or your grandmother”. Therefore he paid tribute to the ladies who raised him – and Twitter loved what he dished up!
Judge Zola Nene, was very emotional when she spoke about this special lady, saying that as South Africa’s very first black food editor, Mams Dorah paved the way for fellow black food professionals such as herself. According to Zola, not only did Dorah “inventively and generously share Africa with the world”, but most importantly, she taught South Africans to love African food.
Our contestants were surprised when Dorah’s daughter, Phumzile Sitol, joined them in the MasterChef SA kitchen all the way from Los Angeles – and they were shocked to see the resemblance between Phumzile and her late mother. Tembisa laughingly referred to Phumzile as a “photocopy” of Mams D.
“If people want seconds, they should have seconds,” echoed Dorah’s voice in the MasterChef SA kitchen, leaving no dry eye.
Relive the moment when Dorah's witty spirit joined us in the MasterChef SA kitchen:
Many Twitter fans were touched by the episode, sharing their memories of Dorah online.
Even some of our contestants paid homage to their gogos online, and we just fell in love with Onti’s gogo.
Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to another contestant – and the sixth person to leave the kitchen was Alicia.
Find out what Alicia had to say after leaving the MasterChef SA kitchen below:
Share that special gogo in your life with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using #MasterChefSA. Remember to watch MasterChef SA every Monday to Thursday at 18:00 on M-Net channel 101. In case you missed the latest episode, catch up with DStv using your connected device.