Last Sunday was our Master Chef night, thanks to James for organising a wonderful evening. Here is his evaluation of the night;Well what a night we had on Sunday. The first Brimbank Master Chef event was fiercely contested with outstanding fare being produced. It wasn't all cut-throat though, as we experienced first hand the skills of the industry thanks to special guest Alan. Alan demonstrated how to cut an onion, mushrooms and even how to dissect an orange. An we were all wowed as in the words of Lightning McQueen from the Pixar animated movie Cars: He was faster then fast, he was speed.
We were also treated to a Masterclass as Alan demonstrated to make a delicious yet simple pilaf (recipe to follow). This was combined with a rendang which became dinner. The rendang was our taste test, as team Brent went head to head with team Kerryn, smelling, tasting and trying to identify ingredients- at least no-one ended up with a minus score.
The pressure test- 40 minutes to cook Neil Perry's BBQ Chicken with Zucchini puree with mashed potato. The results were spectacular and the judges all had a very difficult decision to make- in the end though it was team Brent whose spectacular chicken gave them a slight edge.
The final challenge was a mystery box, team Brent made something and team Kerryn produced crepes with baileys filled with chocolate/caramel. And it was the mystery box that finally separated the two teams giving team Kerryn the win.
Special thanks to Alan Torrance for his time, his demonstrations and his judging. Also special thanks to Sarah Burge who organised a lot of ingredients and provided insightful comments as one of our esteemed judges. Also thanks to all who helped clean up at the end.
-James H.
