When it aired in Australia, cooking schools were inundated with new pupils, traffic to upmarket restaurants increased, and supermarkets had to scramble to meet the sudden demand for obscure ingredients like quail, custard apple and squab.

Now, Masterchef Australia, Season Two, is showing here in South Africa on M-Net, thanks to the sponsorship of spice brand, Robertsons Herbs and Spices. Named the top show in Australia in 2010, with an audience which grew to 5.7 million by the end of the show, it seems there is some great culinary entertainment on the way.

The first episode aired last night – Monday, 4th April – with chefs Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, and food critic, Matt Preston, whittling down the 50 contestants to 45, with a barbeque cook-off. Running on a slightly different format to the British version, the ten contestants with the least impressive braai recipes were then put through a tense elimination round, with cookbook author, Donna Hay arriving with a pavlova recipe for them to replicate.

The contestants’ pavlovas varied from elegant clouds of meringue to revolting-looking desserts, and what one judge dubbed a “pavlova pizza”.

There was also no shortage of drama, with one contestant having a mini-breakdown, and another slicing open his finger.

The episodes will air at 18:30 on M-Net, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and will repeat on Saturdays, for the next twenty weeks. Resist the temptation to google the results, and watch this space for updates.

By Katharine Jacobs