Ultimate Braai Master

It’s the first leg of the third season of South Africa’s toughest outdoor cooking competition and 15 teams of two contestants each, from all across the country arrive at the Monkey Valley Resort in Noordhoek, Cape Town. This marks the start of an epic, 70-day, 9000 kilometer culinary road trip where teams will face a new barrage of challenges in pursuit of the title, the cash, the new 4x4 Renault Duster and a host of other awesome prizes. Contestants have mixed emotions as they arrive to face their first challenge and confront what Justin and the Judges have in store for them. This year, it’s time for tough!

The remaining fourteen teams travel to the Cape Columbine Nature Reserve on the West Coast. This iconic fishing area marks the third leg for teams battling it out to get their hands on this year’s title, but Justin and the Judges have a few tricks up their sleeves! Teams go head-to-head in three tough challenges – requiring them to prepare a selection of camping food to traditional West Coast fare . Sadly two teams are sent home after their efforts fail to impress.

It's the third leg of South Africa's first ever Ultimate Braai Master and the 12 remaining teams are living in luxury at the five-star Table Bay Hotel in the Mother City. This hotel is known as the 'best address in Cape Town' and is the venue for the next challenge.

In this fourth leg in the bid to win the title of South Africa's first ever Ultimate Braai Master, the eleven remaining teams travel to the Hout Bay Harbour, on the coast of Cape Town. The cold Beguela and the warm Agulhas currents makes this ocean one of the richest fishing grounds in the country. The Braai masters have to leave their teammates behind as they go out to sea to get their first taste of catching snoek.

The competition heats up as the ten remaining teams travel from the Cederberg back to the West Coast to the infamous Diamond Diver Cottages in Noup – that hidden place that’s far off the beaten track and in times of old, was not a destination for the faint-hearted. This challenge’s hero-ingredient happens to be South Africa’s most loved protein: Chicken! Teams are put under pressure as they have to braai five different chicken dishes in a mere two hours and in the end the pressure becomes too much for three teams who cross tongs in a nail-biting elimination.

In the sixth leg of The Ultimate Braai Master nine teams depart Matjiesfontein and travel to Cape St Francis, situated on the south-east coast of South Africa. The bay of this small coastal town is prone to good swell, which makes it a chokka fishing hotspot. After enjoying a typical Calamari, chips and tartar sauce lunch, Justin reveals that the braai buddies will go out to sea to get their first taste of fishing for squid. When they finally return after sunset, the challenge begins: teams have to bake, grill and fry a seafood platter on the braai. After a long day of travelling and fishing, teams start to show some strain and the three weakest teams up for elimination are revealed.

t's early morning and Justin reveals that teams have to travel to the Pick n Pay in Jeffrey's Bay and purchase everything they need to make the ultimate campsite braai for Bertus and Marthinus. From Jeffrey's Bay they travel to Morgan Bay - home to one of the best campsites in the country. The next morning, just as the sun rises, teams compete in a breakfast challenge and three teams go into elimination, where they have to cook a beef stew on their cars' engine blocks while travelling to their next destination, the Wild Coast. After a long and tedious travel day, one team's dreams are shattered.

It's early morning and the remaining 8 teams set off to a local Transkei village on foot. Along the way teams are taught how to forage off the coast. They enjoy a night of kuiering with locals in their village and the next morning they set off again and travel to a new village and the destination of their next challenge: a traditional village feast. At the end of the day three teams are announced for elimination.

In the 9th episode of Ultimate Braai Master, the remaining six teams travel from the rural Wild Coast to the hustle and bustle of Durban in Kwa-Zulu Natal. The Braai Masters are taught how to make Crab Curry at one of the best curry joints in the city. The next morning teams meet at the Durban Market where they must follow a set of clues that places them in a race against time and each other in their efforts to make it through the Team Challenge. In the end, three teams come head to head in one of the most gruelling Elimination Challenges yet.

The final five teams make their way to the Rawdons Hotel in the Natal Midlands for the 10th of South Africa's very first Ultimate Braai Master. The area is well known for its horse stud farms, cattle, fly-fishing and some of the best pub grub in the country. After a day of fun and games next to the trout dam, a 12-hour challenge starts the next morning. Each team has to braai a pub grub for 25 people. The reward? A fast-forward to the 12th leg of the Ultimate Braai Master. Even though this is a non-elimination round, teams still have to think out of the box to impress the judges and secure a place in the final 4.

The final five teams travel from the Natal Midlands to the Golden Gate National Park on the edge of the Maluti Mountains. After Coal Shoulder won the fast-forward in the previous challenge, they get to sit back while the other teams face each other for a spot in the twelfth leg of The Ultimate Braai Master. Teams are split into two groups and each group has to make two goat potjies, beef, lamb and chicken sosaties as well as beer bread for 35 guests. In the end, four close friends have to go head to head against each other in one of the most trying elimination challenges yet.

After an emotional Elimination Challenge in the Drakensberg, the remaining four teams travel to Pilanesberg and compete head-to-head in one of the longest Team Challenges yet! After an exhausting 24 hours, two teams are sent into an immediate Elimination Challenge, where they have to bake rusks on the fire overnight and serve homemade 'moer koffie' to the judges for their early morning adjudicating.

Over the last nine weeks contestants have been battling it out all across southern Africa for their chance to get their braai singed fingers on the R500 000, the Renault Duster SUV, a spice trip to India and the title of this year’s Ultimate Braai Master. The final three teams arrive at the Felix Unite Round the Bend Camp on the banks of the Breede River. They are excited and nervous, but the question is which one of the final three teams will have the right combination of teamwork, fireside skills and drive to take it all?