We knew the show had started when a man in a white medical coat (one of the official judges) picked up a big red mallet and hit the large gong on stage. There were maybe 9 or 10 different chef stations set up around the perimeter, and the hostess of the whole production talked briefly with each one (the whole thing was being videod and shown on a big screen at the front, behind the stage.) Most of the chefs were from Taiwanese restaurants, but there were also some from Japan and Thailand. We’re guessing that why we were invited as foreigners (without having to pay anything!) is because it was Western day, although none of the food was particularly Western. We were each given a slip of paper as well; Katelin and I figured out by reading that one line was for our name, but we had to ‘cheat’ and look at someone else’s to figure out what else we were supposed to write for the other one. At least it was easy compared to the 3 page survey we were given at the end, which we ended up getting help to fill out.
Then we got individually served some of every dish that was made – it was amazing food! We had linguine with egg yolk balls, grapefruit-sized potato balls, tuna rolls, shrimp with mango, salmon steaks, chicken asparagus rolls, spicy Thai vegetables, Japanese hot pot soup, chicken skewers, and fried fat lumps in a pancake. Strange as the last one sounds, when each audience member picked their favourite dish by placing a small silver spoon in front of the dish, the fat lumps won by a land slide!
We also got a show with our meal as a bartender spun flaming bottles while making cocktails on the front stage. Impressive!
No comments:
Post a Comment