If you've been having sleepless nights about what the prize for the upcoming second season of MasterChef SA's going to be, you can rest easy. The restaurant fiasco's thankfully gone.
As you probably know, the prize burnt the show last season when winner Deena Naidoo won Chef Benny's job at the Tshogo Sun restaurant at Monte Casino ... or a day a month at the restaurant or the naming rights to the restaurant ... ? To this day no-one knows what he won exactly which is what caused an uproar because many people thought that he was winning the restaurant for forever.
The complications have been ditched for the new season and the restaurant part of the prize has been swapped for increased cash. Word from series director and co-producer Donald Clarke is that the cash component of the prize has been increased from R250 000 to R500 000. It includes a package of other obligation-free prizes.
Last season Deena also won a car and a trip to Italy for a fancy pants cooking course so the season will include these sorts of prizes too.
Filming for the season wrapped in Cape Town recently - it premieres on M-Net later this year.