Dear DBers,

Apologies for missing this month’s challenge. I got a bit busy and promised myself that I’ll cram out the last few days but something came up. Please find photos and story below.

My little excuse

Promises to make up next month,

Phoebe

—–

I was supposed to make my Opera cake (this month’s Daring Baker challenge) five days ago when Pam (of Ogilvy) sent this wonderful surprise. I naturally said yes without any expectations. Fears, yes, I’ve got about a million where burning the dish or dropping a huge chunk of meat on the floor tied spot #1 of my list. While this isn’t anything big for pros, I am just dying to find out if, well, what I know will at least be edible to total strangers.

I really want to tell a good story but am still in trance and mumbling. Here are some photos that might help in my story telling:

SC choosing his Crocs Bistro while waiting for his chef’s jacket

Trivia: Crocs Bistro’s crocs lock™ tread meets industry slip resistance standards while its hip design and colors appeal to the chef’s aesthetic sense. It is no surprise, then, that Crocs was able to get Iron Chef Mario Batali as an international endorser, with the Batali Edition Bistro available in his signature color orange.

The media partners were divided into three teams: International, Global Pinoy, and Asian. SC’s part of the Global Pinoy team while I ended up in the Asian team.

Chef Datu and his Asian team (that includes me!)

Like how it is in Iron Chef, you’re not given recipes and you’re only told during competition what the “secret ingredient” is. Today’s secret ingredient is something very familiar to me: lamb (remember the surplus we’ve had about six years ago?). We were given 2 hours to prepare four dishes. My team mates paired up because of the complex food prep they had to do. While he left me most of the time to do my thing, Coach Datu checked on my status every so often. He welcomed my suggestions and he tossed in a few as well.

Today’s suspects: mussels, sea bass, and lamb shoulders

How I (sort of) made my masterpiece

Chef Datu coaching away

Juned working it!

How pretty can your chef get? *wink*

While waiting for my sauce to thicken, I peeked on SC’s area:

Working on his mashed potatoes

Here’s SC’s masterpiece:

Lamb Bistek Tagalog on a bed of risotto
(wow )

After two hours, our dishes were finally ready

All twelve dishes were criticized to death by the following Unilever chefs:

Chef Brando Santos, Chef James Antolin, and Chef Mike Yap

So ladies and gents, here’s my team’s pride and joy:

Simple lamb and greens with cilantro dressing
“Lamb was done perfectly and the dressing was perfect as well!”

Lambsilog with Aligue rice
“We prefer the lamb be cooked more but the rice is wow…interesting!”

Curried Lamb with Mushroom and Candied Apples
“Has a wonderful kick and the apples have surprisingly retained its crunch…”

Sea Bass with Mussels in Lamb and Lentilles sauce
“I don’t like lentilles but I love how it was used on this dish…”
“This is the only group that used extra protein (the sea bass). They should definitely get points for that.”

After about ten minutes, the winners have been announced:

That’s my team!!!

I am so happy that our team won! Can you just imagine how this excites me as a soon to be ISCAHM student? heehee Much thanks again to Unilever Food Solutions and Crocs for hosting this wonderful event that gave its media partners a fun and fulfilling way of finding out what exactly goes on behind those cold and silver kitchen doors.