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Rhodé Marshall just can't stop watching Somizi's hilariously bad cooking show
Dinner at Somizi’s
1Magic (DStv channel 103)
Friday, 7.30pm
4/5
There have been a flurry of celebrity cooking shows lately, and we can’t get enough of them. Some tune in because they want to learn how to cook better and find different recipes while being entertained, while others just want to be entertained.
If you are one of the latter, Dinner at Somizi’s is for you. In this newest addition to the reality cooking show concept, Somgaga invites his celebrity friends to join him in the kitchen and gets to know them better while preparing dinner.
We have followed Somizi Mhlongo Motaung through the ups and downs of his longstanding career. But this? I didn’t see it coming.
The choreographer and television personality hasn’t always been taken seriously, largely because, over the past decade, Somizi has turned into one of those personalities who has to have their finger in every entertainment pie.
“I’m not a chef. I’m just a personality who loves to cook,” the entertainer declares at the start of one episode… No kidding!
As someone who cooks, loves explosive flavours and can mix it up with whatever is in the kitchen, Somizi’s hope of being led by the spirit of spice ratio is hilarious. He just throws it all in there and hopes for the best, while I sit on the couch, mentally tasting how off-balance the flavour of his meals could be.
But one thing I give him credit for is that I just can’t stop watching. The show has the perfect mix of irreverence for people who take cooking seriously and the warmth and enjoyment of sharing a meal with others – something we all dearly yearn for during this Covid-19 lockdown time.
His evocative descriptions of food are ludicrous. For example, he says – with his unintentional wit and confidence – that Dijon mustard is “rich and succulent”. Comments like this make this show the gift that keeps on giving.
Somizi is as nosy as we are and is the only person who will ask Rebecca Malope whether she says “voetsek” to a dog like the rest of us – and get away with it.
If you look beyond Somizi’s average cooking, one thing becomes clear – he knows his way around a well-styled kitchen.
That leads to one of the minor issues of the show. The placement of the Le Creuset, Smeg and Samsung kitchen implements could have been done subtly.
Whatever their contract says is great for those in the room, especially the host, but, as a viewer, I don’t need a slow shot of the Samsung fridge that’s visible behind Somizi and his guests throughout the show. It almost feels intrusive.
Celebrities like Somizi, who loves to show us his latest gadgets and goodies, often get accused of being thirsty for freebies and of shoving their gifts into the faces of their fans who probably can’t afford them. But the real guilty parties are brands that don’t think strategically about the presentation of their products on social media and TV shows.
Product placement has been part of the entertainment industry for years and is mostly done organically by being woven into the plot line subtly and effectively. Not any more. I don’t need a 10- to 15-second view of a fridge door to know that what I consider a beloved brand exists.
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