Super Chef 2014: The Last Few Hurdles
This week, Rupchanda-Star Lifestyle Super Chef 2014, picked up once again from where it left off. Shawkat Osman, one of the judges, held a cooking demonstration for the participants last week, where they all learned how to make a tricky dish. During that segment, the participants learned a quiet few brand new techniques. This week, ShahedaYesmin, another of the Super Chef judges, took to the kitchen, holding yet another demonstration for the participants.
Since last week, the participants had bid farewell to four other participants. Now, there were eight left and two more would be going home. With two more rounds to go only, perhaps the participants could almost taste the victory, considering how eager they all seemed, raring to go at the first whistle. However, the path so far wasn't easy and the path forward wasn't going to be a piece of cake either. This week, Shaheda Yesmin would make sure that the participants, who moved forward to the next round, really deserved their place.
First, the participants took their respective positions and then waited for the judges to arrive. The judges came and took the stage. At this point, the participants had no idea what to expect but it was evident that they knew that whatever was ahead of them was not going to be easy. Shaheda Yesmin, an experience, qualified and highly respected culinary expert explained the task ahead. She would be preparing a dish for the participants which they would then have to make, following her instructions as closely as possible. The participants wondered if it would as similar to the last round as it sounded. But it wasn't.
Where Shawkat Osman had focused on whether the participants had a chef's know-how to soak up knowledge quickly, prepare on time and provide the needed taste and finish, Shaheda Yesmin's ideas were different. Her focus was largely on technique and execution. For her demonstration, she decided to prepare Stuffed Chicken Wings with sweet chili sauce. “I chose this dish because I wanted to test the participants on three different areas,” she said. The dish would be a good test because firstly it would involve de-boning chicken wings, which is one of the hardest kinds of de-boning exercise. Secondly, she would be able to gauge whether the participants had the ability to stuff the chicken properly and bread it accurately as well. Finally, it was frying the wings that would really test their understanding. A super chef needs to have almost an understanding with the chicken without having to repeatedly taste, feel etc. It ought to come naturally to them. The wings in question needed to be fried golden and crispy at a steady 165 Celsius. A super chef would surely manage that.
The sauce too would need to be prepared. In fact, every step of the demonstration was geared to understand the skills of the participants. And thus the tests began. The participants all tried to mimic Shaheda Yesmin's methods as closely as possible, however not all were to be successful. Some tried hard to get the right kind of golden hue whilst others struggled with the stuffing. As the hour drew to a close, surprisingly almost all had managed to finish their dish, which they brought forward for the judges to taste.
The judges marked the participants individually, tasting everything on their plates. At the end, two more were found to be not ready yet to wear the Super Chef crown and hence the day came to a close. Now with 6 more participants and only two more rounds left to go, expect the last week to be the hardest. Expect plenty of tears and cheers when you tune in to the next episode of the Rupchanda-Star Lifestyle Super Chef 2014, aired every Monday at 9:00 pm, only on NTV.
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