by Thinus Ferreira
South Africa's MasterChef SA contestants for the upcoming 6th season on e.tv from 22 February will suddenly find themselves at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, among golden hay bales on a farm, as well as Nelson Mandela's statue at Sandton Square - all without having ever left Atlantic Studios in Cape Town.
Filming of Primedia Studios' 6th season of MasterChef SA, done by Homebrew Films at Atlantic Studios in Cape Town, has started and for the first time in the history of the South African reality cooking competition series, a virtual video wall is being incorporated as an additional environment besides the MasterChef SA kitchen.
To seamlessly immerse the MasterChef SA contestants into other realms, the Banijay-format show is making use of Filmscape's revolutionary LED Volume - Africa's first - in Milnerton.
For certain tasting and judging segments, the contestants and MasterChef SA judges will leave the MasterChef SA kitchen and walk a stone's throw distance to the curvature of the massive "in vision" wall that will display a backdrop of Paris, a yellow farm field, as well as Johannesburg's Sandton precinct.
Cutting down on costs for on-location shoots, while being able to control the lighting and removing any hindrances like wind, Homebrew Films is able to bake and make MasterChef SA scenes for the 6th season on e.tv to perfection - crafting scenes that look like they're set outdoors with an Instagram-reel feel.
Charl Marais, Filmscape general manager, told TVwithThinus during a MasterChef SA set visit last week, that the LED Volume suddenly opened up more possibilities for the show in terms of what's possible, similar to all of the other productions that have started to embrace the technology, the studio space and the LED Volume over the past three years.
"It's extremely time-effective and cost-effective, so it increases productivity. Producers and directors get more done, faster, and also more precisely since they're in even more control over even more environmental factors when placing scenes within the LED Volume".
Although done far down at the bottom end of Africa, Banijay had absolutely no qualms about Homebrew Films incorporating a virtual environment for the new MasterChef SA season after the idea of using the LED Volume was pitched.
With Primedia Studios and Homebrew Films' proven track record of rekindling MasterChef SA for a 4th season on M-Net in 2022, followed by a 5th season for SABC3, the South African version will again take a kitchen leap forward by adding virtual video wall backdrops for the 6th season.
"The setup and turnaround time is very quick, the contestants, judges and guests remain contained without having to be transported away from studio, and get to play, compete and taste in beautiful additional environments," Charl Marais explains.
Filming of the 6th season of MasterChef SA will be completed in mid-December with the new season of 26 episodes that will start on e.tv on Sunday, 22 February 2026, in the plum timeslot of 18:00.
All three MasterChef SA judges - Zola Nene, Justine Drake and chef Katlego Mlambo - are back for the 6th season.
Justine Drake told TVwithThinus "the MasterChef SA contestants this season are definitely quite good cooks".
"They've also improved at a very rapid rate. The new season is more 'contestant-forward' if that's a word. It relies more on them and they're delivering - a lot of different characters: A lot of colours and cultures."
Zola Nene said "What's evident this year is definitely an elevated level of creativity - the ideas that they come up with are very outside the box. Some of their ideas seem TikTok inspired, so the level of creativity is evident".
Katlego Mlambo said "this is my second season and together with Justine and Zola we're an amazing trifecta together in looking at what the contestants come up with and are trying to surprise us with and us judging what they plate for us".
About the contestants, he says "I think food has evolved so much the last seven years. It's much more of a culture now - making food is quite a 'dreamy' job to have, so your Instagrams, your TikToks, your Facebooks: Everyone's a content creator now and everyone's a food content creator".
"Mzansi food has grown so much because we are doing all of the European trends, and all of the American trends, but we are also adding a Mzansi South African flavour to it".
