He’s got the best smile on our screens, and one of the most exciting jobs. Katharine Jacobs joined MasterChef SA judge Benny Masekwameng for dinner at The Cullinan Hotel and chatted about the tricky parts of judging, being recognised, and a possible second season.

On auditioning to become a judge:
“We had to do a mock episode with first and second year students as contestants. We introduced the challenge and asked the contestants about their dishes. I think they were looking for two things: people who were experts in their field – they interviewed 181 professional chefs – and an ability to speak in front of the camera.”

On fairness:
“Someone’s cooking cannot be judged on one dish. But it’s like that in life as well. If you have a restaurant and one night you cook well, then another night you cook badly. Those people won’t come back. You don’t get any second chances.”

On being recognised:
“People don’t recognise me without my smile – even the contestants. And 60% of people who recognise me are kids!”

On his other passions:
“My secret passion is music – especially when I’m stressed or tired. I’m a big hip hop fan. I also love watching sports such as Formula One racing and soccer. One of the other chefs at OR Tambo, Kenny, and I will phone each other when there’s a race on and talk about it all the way through. I’m team Schumacher.”

On wine:
“I like white wine in a red wine glass – it gives you more room.”

On MasterChef’s impact:
“It’s brought attention to cooking. It helps with awareness; it helps chefs, because now people understand what it takes to produce a dish. In the past eight years or so there’s more food on TV than anything else. There were a lot of sceptics when we started MasterChef SA. Australia made it more popular; we got a lot of tips and hints from them. But I think you can see from the challenges that we’ve made it our own.

On his favourite foods:
“Pork is my number one, but in the past six months in Cape Town I’ve come to realize that I love seafood more than anything. I always ordered seafood while shooting in Paarl. It was the fist thing I ever learnt to cook perfectly with my mom.”

On his favourite restaurants (not counting one of the Tsogo Sun hotels where he works, of course):
“I visited Jordan Restaurant with Arnold Tanzer and Pete Goffe-Wood. I had a starter of stuffed calamari tubes with pork cheek, micro greens, coriander, lime juice and olive oil, which was heaven. It incorporated everything that I love: pork and seafood!”

On the other judges:
“I didn’t know anyone in CT, but luckily I got on very well with the other judges. One of the women from the Australian production team said it’s like you’ve been working together forever. Pete and Andrew knew each other before, so I was worried that they’d get on very well [without me], but it’s like we’ve been friends forever. We lived in one house; we were like brothers.”

On the possibility of a second series:
“I would do it again 10 more times!” (Benny also reveals that the licence is valid for the next five years – so fingers crossed for a second season.)

On disagreements:
“Ja, there were differences in opinion. Not hectic. We had our disagreements, which is normal. If there was something you felt strongly about you were encouraged to speak up.”

On his brand new baby girl, just six weeks old at the time:
“Her name means ‘wonders’ in English, because she came at a time when all these amazing things were happening to me.”

Remember to watch MasterChef SA on Tuesdays at 7.30pm on M-Net.