05-29-2020 12:24 AM - edited 05-29-2020 12:26 AM
I'll admit it - I've probably watched hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of the Food Network, a television network (with international subsidiaries) that airs shows about food discoveries, creations, and competitions (many which feature renowned chefs). My favorite type of show would always be the competition shows - whether it was Chopped, Cutthroat Kitchen, or one-offs like the Restaurant Express.
I'm a bit (maybe a lot) competitive, and throughout the quarantine we've seen families, roommates, etc. cooking together while staying indoors, but due to my competitiveness (and a bit of a routine cabin fever feeling), I decided to stir things up a bit recently. I thought "why not have a cooking competition?!" It turned from a great idea to a full-on event. For this competition, however, we decided to base our creations on baked goods/desserts.
First, ground rules were laid:
Leading up to the "beep" from the oven, things were pretty tense. I am terrible with numbers, so remembering not only ingredients, but specific amounts for each ingredient, was pretty difficult, but a fun challenge for everyone ultimately.
Once the oven "beeped," we were off to the races! The competition itself and us three competitors frantically running around the kitchen to create the perfect dish was pretty intense. I may have gotten in an argument or two over the Kitchenaid mixer 🙈, but its all in good fun and good spirits as we all tried to outdo each other.
I went with a simple, yet sort-of-out-of-ordinary strawberry cheesecake recipe. After the competition, I confirmed that I actually had done a great job at memorizing the recipe and only miscounted in terms of the baking soda. I also almost left out a HUGE, HUGE component in the final mixing of my cookies - the flour 😱. Thankfully, it made it in last minute.
The other dishes created by my competition (fiance and her brother) had me sweating from nervousness as I hoped to take the crown 😅. They created a mocha creme mousse with a butter cake base and layers of chocolate and a mouse infused with coffee; and a butter cake topped with chocolate chip cookie dough with cookie dough truffles on the side with a strawberry compote/glaze decorating the dish, respectively.
Needless to say, I was worried about the state of my cookies versus their desserts and presentation. Thankfully, my cookies were fully cooked (which was my fear), so it was off to the judging round.
We created a simple way of judging format on notecards where we would taste the dish, present our comments, and then score at the end. We scored from 1-10 based on the following:
At the end of judging, comments, and getting very full of desserts (I recommend cutting your recipes in half unless you want leftovers), we presented the scores and I actually tied for first place!
All in all, it was a fun idea to get our blood and minds flowing from the routine of being indoors, and it resulted in some great dishes and a nice cardio workout doing dishes the next morning. I would highly recommend it!
Do you enjoy food competitions/shows? If you were to conduct your own competition, what cuisine/style would you focus on?
Thanks for reading my post! 😀
05-29-2020 04:22 PM
Hi @SP31,
this is so funny and never thought of something like that .. and wow, congratulations for being placed first 😋!
I think this is a very difficult tasks, when you study the receipt you are going to manage that but when you have 15 minutes to think also at what to do and grab ingredients, while you think how you mix them, well .. that's a very nice task haha. I think the time rush is very fairly visible in the exterior of those 3 funny desserts, they are "strange", I mean not usual, but they look fresh and good.
Thank you for sharing this funny, and delicious, game 😊.
05-30-2020 03:17 PM
Haha thanks so much, @LuigiZ ! It definitely is a fun activity for all ages (children may require supervision of course). And you're absolutely right - being that it had to be done so quickly, you can see that the desserts are a bit rough around the edges, and that's part of what makes it a fun activity - really testing your abilities and knowing that things don't have to be perfect as long as they're as yummy as possible 😂😂😂. Thank you, Luigi!
06-01-2020 12:05 PM
This is such a fun idea and I loved reading your post. I could feel the energy and franticness, but bravo on remembering your recipe so well, @SP31 !
I participated in a cooking challenge with fellow Googlers and past Googlers called Quarantine Kitchen or #qkitch where each week over six weeks, we replicated a recipe that one of us chose. I came in second place but we're all winners with trying new food, making new friends and eating. 🙂
06-04-2020 11:02 AM
@SP31 @I am a super cookie lover!! 🍪
06-05-2020 05:53 AM
@SP31 Wow!
This sounds fun, giving no time to research brings out more creativity I guess 😁
I loved the cheesecake cookies they look so delicious 😍 even the mocha creme mousse looks heavenly.
Thanks for sharing this innovative indoor idea it is a great way to keep ourselves engaged and entertained.
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06-05-2020 06:02 AM
Hello @SP31
Thank you so much for shearing with us 🙂 fabulous photo and content
06-07-2020 03:05 PM
looks great
06-07-2020 09:28 PM
An interesting post and certainly a fun idea @SP31. While I myself have never participated in such a competition, I have seen a few, including sculpturing fruit and/or vegetables into animals or birds etc which I wrote about in the post Amazing fruit and vegetable art, and some time back I watched an interesting TV show where invited well known chefs participated in cooking something from 5 given ingredients that were presented to them by the audience; well I think that's how the show went! Well I have to say it was tough as the ingredients were a bunch of all-sorts!
06-07-2020 10:37 PM
Thank you @Wei929 @rajuroyal & @Rosarioislands- !
@TraciC thank you for reading! Wad definitely hoping that energy came across so that others would want to conduct and participate in something challenging yet fun as well. I actually enjoyed catching your posts for #qkitch - I didn't realize the others were Googlers as well; there were a ton of delicious dishes from what I remembered 😁.
@FalguniP thanks so much, they all were definitely heavenly haha. Part of that creativity is definitely doing whatever you can to catch up and fix mistakes as well. Thanks for reading and looking forward to your food posts as always 😊.
@AdamGT thanks for sharing your post as this has provided me with maybe my next idea for an indoor competition haha 😛. But that show sounds pretty interesting - especially with that many ingredients and I'm sure they varied in flavors as well. It's difficult to mix a lychee with perhaps with aged cheese lol. Glad you enjoyed my post, thank you!