Taking a challenge: MASTERCHEF

MasterChef version HAN

Thursday, the 15th of September, it was finally happening. The first real cooking competition a la MasterChef was organized by HAN, my college. After some good marketing strategies from the teachers they had gathered enough students to assemble two rounds of competing, motivated students from all around the campus, freshmen as well as seniors. The teachers had enthusiastically announced that it would be a most amusing event which would be supervised by a real Masterchef finalist herself! When I heard that I did not have to think twice. Being a big fan of Masterchef and Food & Business freshman student I immediately help up my hand full of excitement during the first week of college. Because they demanded we would cook in duos I was pleasantly surprised when another classmate also wanted to embrace the opportunity to test her cooking skills. After a brief introduction we decided to team up and join together. We were left clueless what to expect as it was a dreaded 'mystery, black box' challenge. A Master Chef element which the contesters do not know what they are going to cook with until they lift their lids. The only thing they do know is that they need to cook with whatever is inside (apart from some extra staples) within a given amount of time. But really, there can be literally anything underneath the box; meat, fish, herbs, vegetables, alcohol, nuts, etc. You are free to decide whatever ingredients you wish to cook with but only the ingredients within can be used and the more products you incorporate the more you can impress the jury.

Throughout the day of the challenge my partner in crime and me were full of excitement and motivation ready to blow away the competition (read with sarcasm please). Super curious who the rest of the participants would be and excited to admire the jury we came walking in. The challenge was in fact judged by ex-Masterchef finalist Josephine (known from josephinekookt.nl). Right before the competition started she came over to give everyone the last instructions and ended with a positive note and some last encouraging words. When my partner, Anna-Lin, and I took a good look the our competitors our hearts sank. There were nine teams in total during the first round. It was a mix of freshmen and seniors, there was even a team of teachers who seemed very skilled. Jokingly ,Anna-Lin and I, said to each other. "Gosh, we will be glad if we do not finish last." Beforehand Anna-Lin had indicated that she could cook pretty well, except fish. This was something she despised

You can already feel it coming right... When we got the signal were allowed to lift the lids the first thing I heard next to me was a little 'Eeekk!'. I, on the other hand, was quite amused to find a delicious, fresh plaice hidden under. I offered to take care to the fish, really eager to try filleting it. Next to the fish the box contained, chorizo, olives, red grapefruit, tarragon, romanesco, egg, potato and turmeric. After a quick deliberation the hour which was were given to cook flew by as we were worked our asses off. Meanwhile the jury was walking around to supervise to check whether we were working together as a team, knew to ingredients ourselves and working tidy and clean. This was also one of their criteria. So with a professional glance they were questioning each team on what they were planning to serve and able to multitask. My partner and I had decided to fillet plaice, bake on the skin and serve vinaigrette with a grapefruit. The romanesco would be transformed into a puree and the florets would be fried in a tempura batter. The potato would be sliced into chips and chorizo as a little extra crunch. When the buzzer went, which indicated that we needed to drop everything, we served our plate with a reasonable sense of satisfaction. Proud we had managed to assemble a nice looking dish within an hour.

Every team had prepared beautiful looking plates but the jury had told us they would only take the three best looking ones into consideration. After the jury had deliberated from some time they announced their top three. The had decided upon choosing a senior, male duo, teachers team and ... WE! Astounded we looked at each other, glad we had made it that far. I texted my mother quickly that we were selected as one of the last three teams. When the dishes were thoroughly scrutinised by the professional taste buds of the jury. pleased noises appeared from the jury during the tasting selection so they did not hint too hard. They quickly went behind the stage for a final deliberation. The teachers ended third and then it was between the senior team and us. After a few moments of silence Josephine looked at us and said Anna Lin and I were the winners! Stunned, we looked at each other when we heard that we won. The first prize was not only a mason jar kit with DIY peanut butter and the famous HAN water cap but also an invitation to cook come with her and make a professional dish. I saw this as an excellent opportunity to also give some publicity to my own cooking blog and link it with hers. Anna-Lin and I are going to think some more about what creative culinary ideas we can come up with. This article is continued once we cashed our reward, so stay tuned for our adventure if you're curious!

Dutch version: https://blog.han.nl/foodandbusiness/masterchef/