THE GREAT PRIORITY COOK-OFF, WEEK EIGHT MATCH REPORTS/WEEK NINE PREVIEW
Well, food aficionados, Week Eight continued what has become a Priority cook-Off tradition – exciting dishes carefully prepared, the enjoyment of tempting tastes – all mixed with an edge of controversy!
We were all anticipating something special from Bryan, but he called in sick, and the judges were unanimous in awarding his putative opponent Amelia a walkover. Actually, Amelia very cleverly went for a dessert dish – delicious heart-shaped shortbread cookies, dusted with icing sugar. We will never know what Bryan might have presented but there is a good chance Amelia’s cookies would have won the match fair and square.
Next up came two really fabulous dishes – Angelia presented another pie, this time a classic English chicken and mushroom, topped with melt-in-the-mouth golden pastry. Her competition came from Nolan who gave us a local favourite, tauhu goreng with a rich, crunchy peanut sauce. Nolan swears he ground the peanuts himself; we all swear he could succeed as a professional chef! The outcome was a narrow victory for Nolan, but there was no shame in defeat for Angelia.
The third match-up featured Italian versus Thai cuisines – Gerlynn’s seafood risotto was faced with stir-fried eggplant with minced chicken and basil leaves, another complex dish from Francis. The result? Francis was the winner, improving his record to 2 wins against 3 losses and drawing level with Gerlynn in the league table.
These two were a hard act to follow, but Kunalan and Joy met the challenge. Joy gave us a typical Chinese dish – fish in ginger sauce, tasty and healthy at the same time. Sadly for Joy, she was matched with the competition’s runaway leader! Kunalan delivered yet another variation on the infinite variety of curries, this time a sharp-flavoured vegetarian selection.
Is it a surprise that Kunalan came out the winner yet again? He has now posted a 4 -0 record leaving him out front by a clear margin, with 12 points. Angelia is strongly positioned in second place with 9 points, followed by a whole pack on 6 points. Then we have some stragglers – some of whom will have a chance to move up the table next Monday, when the Week nine fixtures take centre stage.
We will see four keenly anticipated and fiercely contested match-ups:
William, who so far has only cooked twice, for a 1-1 record, will take on Bryan who needs to improve on his 1-3 standing.
Joseph, whose Pinoy specialities are invariably crowd-pleasers, will compete with Kairavi, our vegetarian princess. Joseph boats a 2-1 win-loss record, while Kairavi stands at 1-2.
The third fixture will see Amelia, a dark horse with an estimable 2-1 record, go up against Nolan, at 2-1. This will be a hard one to call!
The last of the Week Nine matches features Gerlynn, at 2-2, against Joy, who despite producing a wide variety of Indonesian and Chinese favourites, languishes in the cellar with zero wins to her name!
We’re betting this situation won’t last – look out for a breakthrough win from Joy, and a break-up of the chasing pack behind Kunalan and Angelia!
