 |
| Battle of the Top 4 Screengrab from XinMSN |
Its down to the top 4 competing to be the next Wok Star, and they are one step away from the Grand Finale. Episode 8 kicked off at Emily Hill, where contestants had to show off their creativity once again by coming up with an egg dish within one hour.
The egg is a versatile ingredient and as Chef Willin said, can be used as a sweet or savoury dish. Violet went for eggs with potato, which sounded pretty conventional. Kenneth went with chicken rice chili deviled egg, and was immediately called out by Chef Willin for trying to make chicken rice chili when there was no garlic available. Its therefore important to work within the ingredients you have and not stick to any pre-conceived ideas.
Sean once again pulled out a rabbit from his hat and went with frittata with a chocolate chili orange sauce. For those who dont know what a frittata is (i didnt), it is an egg-based Italian dish, with optional ingredients such as meat, cheese, vegetables or pasta. Sean went with potatoes, but what stood out of course was his very interesting sauce. KS seemed to be in his comfort zone and it was interesting to learn more about his background - he used to do outdoor catering and live station cooking. There was an element of creativity too, as he went for a crepe cake :o
It was Sean who came out tops and scored extra points for using orange and coconut cream. It is really cool that he has so many ideas, always interesting to see what new things he comes up with. While KS's idea was well-thought out, it turned out to be too eggy as Violet also pointed out. I also like it that KS is confident of his own ability without being arrogant. On the other hand, Kenneth was shown heaping self-praise on himself again, is he the Wok Stars equivalent of Nicklas Bendtner?
 |
| Image from memegen.com |
Next, the contestants were brought to a studio where they were asked to conceptualize their signature hawker dish. Chef Willin explained that drawing helped to plan the ingredients, textures, flavours and inspiration. This provided a basis for the cooks to plan and further build their ideas on. Chef Willin then brought the cooks to his restaurant - Wild Rocket, where he brought them through his dishes and explained the concepts and ideas behind his creations. All the cooks were visibly blown away by Chef Willin's creativity and thought concepts, which goes to show what a powerhouse he is.
Finally, onto the semi-finals cook-off! The cooks had 1.5 hours to make their signature dish.
The guest judge was Chef Shermay Lee, owner of Shermay's Cooking School. As Sean won the previous day's challenge, he given the chance to deduct 10 minutes of time from a fellow contestant. He then chose Kenneth as his target, because he felt that Kenneth would not be able to cope with less time. However, Kenneth interpreted it as Sean regarding him as the biggest threat in the competition, and was pretty pleased with himself. Indeed, human dynamics are so interesting, and different people can get different stories from the same experience.
Kenneth changed his dish from the previous day and went with a pork bone tea risotto. The change in dish gave him more time to spare, and this also meant that Sean's plan backfired. KS also changed his plan and went for crepes, something he said he was second-best at. He ran into alot of trouble using an induction pan to make crepes and many of them ended up burnt and discarded into the bin. However, he still managed to put out 3 crepes of different flavours for the judges - kaya, goreng pisang and sweet potato.
Violet stuck to making fried bee hoon, and added a third dish - nasi uduk. However, her work station was too cluttered and Chef Shermay was pretty upset that Violet had placed her noodles onto the floor, which would turn off potential customers. Sean stuck to a cold dish but made it more complex. It was now a frozen chicken herbal soup with cold noodles and hua tiao jelly.
Time was soon up, and Kenneth was the first to present his dish. While there was nothing conceptually wrong with his dish, the judges felt that it lacked flavour. Sean's dish was deemed too complicated. Indeed, he spent some time explaining to the judges how to eat it, who felt that this un-intuitive way of eating was not fitting for a hawker setting. He also lost marks on flavour.
Violet revealed that her nasi uduk was in fact nasi lemak, but she changed the name to attract more customers. To me this sounded rather gimmicky! The judges felt that she had attempted to do too much and should also have just concentrated on making a good nasi lemak. Finally, KS's turn and he was praised for having a low-cost concept that offered variation. However, the kaya dish was quite poor, and he lacked consistency across his dishes.
I was quite sure that KS would go through and that Sean would not. Although Sean offered alot of creativity, he seemed to be here just to push the envelope and not to really be a hawker. It was down to Kenneth and Violet, and ultimately the judges went for Kenneth as they felt that he had the potential to improve on his dish.
The guest judge was Chef Shermay Lee, owner of Shermay's Cooking School. As Sean won the previous day's challenge, he given the chance to deduct 10 minutes of time from a fellow contestant. He then chose Kenneth as his target, because he felt that Kenneth would not be able to cope with less time. However, Kenneth interpreted it as Sean regarding him as the biggest threat in the competition, and was pretty pleased with himself. Indeed, human dynamics are so interesting, and different people can get different stories from the same experience.
 |
| Screengrab from XinMSN |
And so it will be KS vs Kenneth for the grand finale. Credit to Kenneth, although he is quite cocky, he is in the top 2, so he has to have some standard as well. KS is also up to the challenge, as he wants to prove that he can win although he has no formal culinary training, unlike Kenneth. It's game on, and it promises to be a very exciting finale indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment