‘Pencarian Chef Selebriti 2 BH dan Gas Petronas’ Pre Final

We were in AEON Bukit Tinggi Klang last weekend to catch the 20 semifinalists (10 each from Individual Category and Professional Category) compete for the top three spots to be in the finals for the ‘Pencarian Chef Selebriti 2 BH dan Gas PETRONAS’.

Participants are selected through the 100 semifinal entries for the individual category and 50 entries for the Professional Category.

The judges for the pre-final competition are Head Jury Datuk Chef Redzuawan Ismail; Puan Nik Faizanira Nik Affandi (Pengurus Besar, Bahagian Perniagaan Gas Petrolium Cecair (GPC), PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad, and Penolong Pengarang Unit Wanita BH, Puan Jami’ah Sokri.

From left to right: Puan Nik Faizanira Nik Affandi, Datuk Chef Redzuawan Ismail, Puan Jami’ah Sokri and Puan Nordayanti (Audit)

For the semi-final competition, participants from the individual category are allowed to bring a kitchen assistant and also to bring their own cooking ingredients based on recipes submitted by them to BH.

Individual category: A chef and an assistant

The juries went around taking points from the beginning when the dishes are cooked right until they are served and tested.

Contestants need to have an interesting personality to be able to capture the audience with his/her knowledge of cooking and is highly eloquent as this unique competition is not only looking for a person who can cook but is on the hunt for a Celebrity Chef!

Shown in the picture was Datuk Chef Redzuawan unable to chew the half-cooked vermicelli by one of the individual contestant. Needless to say, that contestant had an earful from Datuk Chef Wan but it was all constructive criticism.

Datuk Chef Wan emphasised that food is about balancing, about complementing each other. Food is also a feast for the eyes hence the colours, textures and presentation of the food is vital.

While waiting for the Audit to tabulate the scores for the Individual Category, a coloring contest was held in the vicinity of the area. Children age 6-10 participated for free.

The winner of the colouring competition.

The audience were also entertained by Faizal Tahir’s protégé in Mentor, Anas who performed 1 Malay number and 1 English song.

The top three Individual Category participants Chua Tor Aik, Rosni Bt Johari and Azman Abu Samah will proceed to compete in the finals while the rest of the contestant won a consolation prize of RM100 each and a certificate of participation

For the Professional Category, the participants are not allowed to bring any kitchen assistant and cooking ingredients during the competition. Cooking ingredients are provided by the organizers as an element of surprise to test the ability of the participants in preparing culinary delights with surprised ingredients.

 The participants from the Professional Category only discovered the ingredient at the eleventh hour.

The participants from the Professional Category were also given constructive criticism by fellow juries in the hope that they will better their performance in the finals.

Just look at the crowd in the mall that day. All wanted to catch a glimpse of the competition.

 Visitors to the Gas PETRONAS booth get to play Gas PETRONAS puzzle box and more to win prizes. Here is my little Ethan trying to solve that puzzle within 3 minutes. He did it under 2 minutes! Well done my boy!

We were also entertained by clown and magic while waiting for the Audit to tabulate the scores for the Professional Category.

Top 3 contestants for Professional Category who will be competing in the Finals are Mohd Zamri B Sahari, Riza B Ismail and Kamarudin B Dali while the rest of the contestants bring home RM100 each and certificate of participation.

The top 3 contestants for Individual Category and top 3 contestants for Professional Category will be competing for the title ‘Celebrity Chef’  that comes with a RM10,000 cash prize and a trophy each at E@Curve this 15^th December 2012!

I can’t wait to catch the ‘Pencarian Chef Selebriti 2 BH dan Gas Petronas’ Finals! See you at E@Curve!