Last night eventually saw the final episode of Masterchef Australia 2011. It seemed to be an extra-long season, and straight afterwards we were treated to the first episode of our own MasterChef SA Season Two. Both brought their own uniqueness, and I was excited to see some familiar foodie faces on MasterChef SA. I’m looking forward to those exciting pressure tests.

The final pressure test last night was between Australian finalists Kate and Michael, and I was thrilled that it featured a chef on the top of my bucket list: René Redzepi, owner of Noma in Copenhagen. (Noma is number 2 of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Our very own The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français and The Test Kitchen are in the top 100, and Luke Dale-Roberts was named One to Watch at the ceremony.)

In his beautiful book, René has a recipe for a dessert called The Snowman, which resembles a snowman, carrot nose and all. The contestants’ challenge was to recreate it under the guidance – well, a bit – of René. How amazing that the show managed to secure him!

The recipe calls for all kinds of equipment, like Thermomixes, Pacojets, blast chillers, refractometers and spray paint, but the ingredients are surprisingly simple and the main ingredient is the humble carrot. As a forager, René believes we need to eat more veggies, and he takes inspiration from his surrounding environment.

Which reminded me of what chef Kobus Van Der Merwe is celebrating on the West Coast at his restaurant Oep ve Koep. He believes in preserving the area’s heritage; he prepares bokkoms, snoek roe, local berries, salt leaves and sand dune spinach in a modern style of taste and presentation.

But back to The Snowman. The recipe in the book is pretty much the same as the way they prepared it last night, except that the mousse was adapted: instead of traditional sea buckthorn, they used granadilla. The dish consisted of the following elements: a meringue ball flavoured with white balsamic and apple cider that’s dusted with maltodextrine before baking to give it a snow-like appearance (I need to get my hands on some of that for my pavlovas!); a granadilla mousse cylinder topped with a carrot sorbet that’s dipped in liquid nitrogen and then coated in yoghurt spray; and a base, covered in a frosting of sheep milk granita to resemble a light shower of snow. And somewhere in between there is a delicate carrot root – his nose!

I can only imagine what it tasted like… Fresh and tart, earthy, not too sweet, smooth, sour, crunchy, tart, chalky and cold.

Good luck to all our contestants!

Abigail