I'm Guilty, My Beauty

In the audience area. There were a lot of talks focused on the word themes.

"Glamorous, I think glamorous as celebs."

"I"ll put colorful dishes and make it s.h.i.+mmer."

"But dauntless, quite hard."

"I don"t think it"s all about the hardness but maybe like for the health?"

"However super made me think of Superman. I think it means healthy and energy giving foods."

"How about extraordinary?"

"No idea."

"Probably, a very special dish."

One of them who was bored blurted out of the blue, "easy, get some extra food and add it to an ordinary one, combine them and you"ll get extraordinary food."

"..."

. . . . .

While at the workstations.

"I prefer chocolate for Dauntless. Maybe a chocolate cake. I love that Dauntless episode of the movie Divergent. She never gives up." Luisa said with a pen and paper in hand.

"How are you going to interpret chocolate to become dauntless?" asked Nota puzzled with the idea.

"I thought of Chocolate Lava Cake. Hard outside but soft inside. The outer crust protecting dauntlessly the lava chocolate inside with an extra glazy armor outside. Love it." She sent a flying kiss in the air with the smooching sound.

"Have you totally decided?" She"s seemed doubtful if it would work but didn"t say it.

"Yes, because I"m better with sweets than dishes." Luisa"s eyes glimmered with pride as she wrote the needed ingredients and drew an ill.u.s.tration of the cake.

Nota smiled brilliantly when she saw the image drawn. "That"s a wonderful idea you have there. Go ahead. Just tell me what to do."

. . . . .

At Ernie"s table.

"I think super should be healthy and packed with protein," argued Elaine after she placed a bowl of nuts and a basket of fruits on the workstation table.

Ernie watched her movement unsure of what kind of a.s.sistant he found, a help or the bossy type. "I think so too, but it should be a dish, not nuts and berries."

. . . . .

At Cathy"s workstation.

"Of all themes, why extraordinary? I prefer glamorous." Cathy said with disdain with her b.u.t.t sitting on top of the worktable. She was still angry about losing her money with Jack and hated to see Beauty in the hall. Her state of mind was affected by her emotions, all she could think of was her loss.

"Well, you have no other choice. Do you want to win or not?"Renee felt hopeless as she saw her partner was somewhat emotionally unprepared and with distant eyes.

Cathy glanced at Renee not knowing how to answer her a.s.sistant. "Hmm, okay, just give me some time to think for a while."

. . . . .

At Beauty"s worktable.

"What do you think of food that spells out glamorous as you see and taste it?" asked Beauty clipping a pen on her right ear as she leaned on their s.h.i.+ny stainless table top with a crease on her forehead.

Rene placed his palms on the table supporting his upper body weight. He looked at Beauty full of antic.i.p.ation to be partnered with a strong contender. "I"m thinking of party foods. Like varieties of Hors d" oeuvres." (p.r.o.nounced as "ordervs")

"Or what?" She had seen the word before but didn"t know it"s proper p.r.o.nunciation.

"I said Hors d" oeuvres. Variety of appetizers in bite-size as finger foods."

"Nice, I love that. c.o.c.ktail food, and portray a glamorous party." Her eyes twinkled, an idea came to mind. She was excited and started writing.

"No problem but how do you serve it like a party?" His excitement was on par with her partner now.

"I"m still visualizing that in my mind. Save it for later." She continued to scribble on the pink flowery stationery paper.

. . . . .

"Okay, guys, are you done? Coz the 30 minutes almost up. Are you ready?"

"We"re ready!" All eight people enthusiastically shouted.

"Then you have 3 hours to do it. Timer starts… now."

Ernie and Luisa"s teams went straight to the storage rooms to get their ingredients. Cathy was still pondering while Nota was writing her ideas in a small notebook. Beauty was writing her recipes. Rene was doing the same thing for his Hors d" oeuvres. They head straight to the storage room when they finished their list.

Each workstation was busy preparing for their dishes. The audience was also getting restless. The time was ticking and the smell in the hall was really mouth watering… and... the... time was up.

"Let"s start with Beauty and Rene."

A table was prepared and it was covered with a red cloth. Beauty came in with three tall c.o.c.ktail gla.s.ses. All three have different and colorful condiments inside. Aside from that, there were deveined shrimps and red salmon cubes hanging on the gla.s.s rim. Some meat with fruits was skewered in a fancy toothpick. Crunchy-crusted cheese b.a.l.l.s were mounded in a gla.s.s.

Rene followed with two elongated rectangular plates with different kinds of small bite size appetizers on it: oven baked scallops, curried meat in a ceramic spoon, and others.

It didn"t stop there for a lot of tiny bit of dishes were brought in. One bowl filled with ice cubes and on top were mini-bowls with fresh fruits in different kinds of colors and sizes. Three shot gla.s.ses filled with colorful liquor gel was partly buried in the ice.

The last one, an oval platter filled with mixed greens other veggies cut into strips and three kinds of dips at the right side of the plate.

The whole set was so colorful and inviting.

Liza couldn"t help herself and said,"Wow, a lot for three hours."

"There"s not much needed to prepare and with the two of us working separately, we were able to finish them on time," replied Beauty standing with her chest out, back straight, chin up with pride and her hands clasped together in front of her.

"So present to us your glamorous foods then," said John sitting on a wooden chair beside a long red mahogany table as one of the judges waiting to be served.

Beauty and Rene took turns presenting the finger foods and salads with each corresponding dish name. The judges only tried a few of which their interest was really perked or they would be full before tasting the food from other teams.

"I"m really impressed. The two of you have good chemistry working as a team. Splendid." This time it was the "hard to please" Paul who spoke. The two cooks were full of smiles to hear him say that.

The three judges stood up and gave the two a round of applause. The audience followed suit.

"Okay, next team will be Ernie and Elaine. We will be tasting Super dishes this time."

Both of them presented three dishes. One round plate had a whole squash carved as a bowl with cover. Inside was creamy nutty squash soup. Beside it was toasted french bread slices. Another plate had stir-fried bean dish with grilled salmon slices on top. The last one was a combination of pomegranate, dragon fruit, and rambutan with syrup in a bowl.

The judges tried all three and gave their comments. They were given a round of applause as well but the judges remained seated.

Luisa and Nota came next. Both of them held a three-layered chocolate cake. It was beautifully made. The base cake was covered with glossy chocolate ganache frosting. The second cake was covered with chips of white chocolates over the frosting. The highest layer was a small simple cake with no frosting but white and black chocolate tidbits with three cherries were on top.

While she was explaining, she sliced a portion on the topmost cake. Suddenly soft white and black chocolate ganache gushed out and flowed down like a waterfall from the top to the bottom of the tray. Everyone was astounded including the judges.

The last to present were Cathy and Renee. Cathy went forward followed by Renee who was bringing a platter of roasted skinless deboned chicken surrounded with lettuce leaves. It was appetizing to look but the faces of the judges were calm. Cathy presented the dish by slicing the chicken directly at the center. All of the fillings gushed out exposed.

Liza and John tasted the chicken with the fillings but Paul didn"t touch any of it. He didn"t say a word. Cathy and Renee were restless to see him this way.

Liza spoke with a slight cringe on her face, "I wish you made a sauce or gravy."

Then Paul finally spoke, "I wish you gave your best, Cathy." He said it frankly with unperturbed face and was not apologetic at all.

Everyone heard him loud and clear. Most wondered why he said so and what did they miss that happened. Cathy was dumbfounded, silent, and thinking on why said those fierce statement. She was suddenly enlightened and saddened. She couldn"t think of anything to refute for he was right.