 |
| Face-Off! Screengrabs from XinMSN |
Its the grand finals! But its a 2-part special so thankfully we still get to savour Wok-Stars goodness for one more week! It’s down to Kenneth against KS, and they will cook their signature dish for 30 guests. Up for grabs is the grand prize of S$30,000, and the opportunity to run their own hawker stall in a Koufu foodcourt without rent for a year.
Each of the resident judges was paired up with one of the finalists; Chef Willin mentored KS while Chef Alvin was with Kenneth. KS shared his dream of turning his passion for cooking into a career, and I guess this is really everyone’s dream, to be able to do what you love for a living :) for me, thinking about it further, I enjoy cooking but I do not think I will enjoy cooking the same dish everyday because it will become too routine. I think this is also why Master Chef US Season 4 winner Luca Manfe hosts “Dinner with Luca” sessions instead of working in a mainstream restaurant kitchen?
Anyway, back to Wok Stars - Kenneth discussed with Chef Alvin on
how to enhance the flavour of his bak ku teh risotto dish. Building on Kenneth’s idea of using beef
instead of pork ribs, Chef Alvin suggested using chocolate to go with the dish,
as well as stuffing tau kua with cheese in place of you tiao. This turned up the “fusion” factor in
Kenneth’s dish and in my opinion made it a lot more unique than KS’s, in terms
of concept.
Kenneth’s motivation was to find a short-cut to owning his own F&B business. While he enjoyed cooking, he felt that cooking for $2,000 a month as an employee was too little, and hence wanted to use the $30,000 prize money to start his own business. Sad to say, money is necessary for many things, be it eating, accommodation, paying bills, and so while it doesn’t sounds very idealistic, it is a realistic statement. I am sure that there are those who are happy to just to be able to cook and not worry about the cash, and these are the people I respect most. They also say that money follows the passion, but it really takes a big leap of faith to be able to do so.
 |
| And they say for those with the balls to take the leap, they land in a giant wad of cash Screengrab from Hubspot |
Test
Cooking
The two finalists then went shopping for the
ingredients for the test run. One
notable event here was when KS spotted Kenneth buying chocolate and Kenneth
wasn’t able to explain what the chocolate would be used for. The camera then cut to Kenneth explaining
that he didn’t want to change Chef Alvin’s suggestion, making it seem that he
really didn’t know what the chocolate was to be used for. To give him the benefit of the doubt, it may
well be that Kenneth did know, since he knew what type of chocolate to choose
but some creative editing was done to make the show more spicy, hehehe.
 |
| "But I actually thought the chocolate was for me to eat while cooking" |
It soon became apparent that KS has a stubborn streak in him. KS’s idea was to have 3 different crepes
representing 3 different local cultures and Chef Willin reminded him that 3 crepes may be
too much to handle. However, KS decided
to stick with 3, and only abandoned this only much later when he was unable to
cope with having to cook 3 crepes. KS
also has this natural aversion to making lists, preferring to cook from “feel”
instead. Chef Willin again reminded him
on the importance of planning out the steps and listing down the quantities of
each ingredient. KS struggled to internalize this, and this was
especially apparent when he was unable to multi-task the different processes
and burnt his crepes and gula-melaka. I guess its one thing to have your own view, but if a more
experienced chef provides advice, it is probably wise to take in their inputs
since they would probably know better.
 |
| Especially if the chef owns multiple restaurants and can wear a cap to host his own cooking show Picture from is.asia-city.com |
The crepes were finally out, and they were both delicious and visually appealing. The only potential problem was the time factor- whether KS would be able to push out 30 dishes within the time limit. KS also predicted that Kenneth’s downfall would be his arrogance, because Kenneth was always showing off his background in CIA (Culinary Institute of America, not Central Intelligence Agency).
Kenneth’s test session with Chef Alvin started well enough, with Chef Alvin giving advice on flavours, smelling and tasting. However, Chef Alvin soon grew irritated because he felt the Kenneth was over-confident due to his background in culinary training – just as KS had predicted. Chef Alvin was yelling about not heating up the oil fast enough, too little/much garlic [are you trying to kill vampires?] and burning the short ribs. Similar to KS, the flavour was good but there was also a concern with the time factor.
Kenneth felt that he had an advantage over KS because he was
experienced in cooking in high volume and his dish was conceptually stronger
than KS’s. He stated that his odds of
winning were 99-1. We will soon find out
if he is correct…
Next up was a session with the marketing and designing folks from Koufu,
where the finalists got to discuss the layout, concept and design of their
stall. I thought this was also quite
meaningful, since it gave the cooks a very good idea of what they stood to win,
and the experience would also be useful should they ever decide to open their
own stall even if they did not win.
 |
| With the increase in alcohol duties, i can mark up the price for beer batter fish - awesome! |
Surprise Challenge
The cooks then paid a visit to The Line, a buffet place at the
Shangri-La Hotel. Chef Ryan Sablan
Dadufalza, Executive Sous-Chef of the Line revealed that The Line is very busy
and serves up to 1,000 guests a day. A
surprise challenge was sprung onto the cooks, where they found out that they
had just 3 hours to prepare their signature dish for dinner service at The
Line! KS was visibly surprised, but both
he and KS relished the opportunity to get public feedback on their dishes.
 |
| "Actually I was surprised that they didnt throw in a free night's stay at Shang" |
Each of the cooks were provided with 2 sai-gang warriors, and it
was revealed that the cooks would also have 2 helpers during the final
cook-off, so this was really a dry run
for the grand cook-off itself.
The cooks’ weaknesses resurfaced once again. For KS, the absence of a list made
communication to the helpers difficult, since they would not have his
“feel”. For Kenneth, he again had
problems with garlic and not turning up the heat on the oil. He also forgot to add dark soy sauce into his
stock and added too little salt, ending up on the receiving end of many
vulgarities from Chef Alvin. There was
also the additional problem of inexperience with the kitchen set-up, and the
cooks were shown scrambling for ingredients/equipment, underscoring the
importance of Mise en place, or just a very fanciful way to “making sure
everything is in place/prepared”.
In the blink of an eye, time was up and KS ran into
trouble as his ice cream didn’t turn out right and he failed to put out enough
crepes for service. However, the dishes
from both cooks were well received. KS
ended up with a line forming for his crepes, which either meant that his food
was very popular or that he was too slow in his service.
Both cooks have taken in feedback from the service
and it was revealed that the two helpers for the final cook-off would be fellow (ex-)wok-star contestants. It’s all shaped up
very nicely for the grand cook-off to be aired this Wednesday, and I must say
that I am bloody excited!
No comments:
Post a Comment