Can kids cook too? That’s what my 5 year old Josiah asked when I told him about this event I brought him to last Tuesday. It was a media event in conjunction with the season premiere of Masterchef Junior US, scheduled to show tonight on Star World (Astro Channel 711) and Star World HD (Astro Channel 722). You might have watched th UK Version of this show before and marveled at how cute they are and how crazy is it that kids can cook that well before, well, don’t miss the US version coz it will be ultra cute and sure to bring out the ‘awws’ especially if you have kids.
Chef Albert, Head Chef of F by Buffalo Kitchens where the event was held kicked off the night with some cooking demonstrations. A pretty rare experience for me as I’d never watched a live cooking demo even though me and Josiah watched a lot of it on Astro. Besides cartoons, Josiah actually loved watching cooking shows and sometimes he’d tell me the dishes he saw and would like me to cook for him!
After the show, we were treated to some exquisite food on the table, oysters, duck, well names so complicated I can’t remember them, but just look at the pics. There were some green pasta and lasagna that Josiah enjoyed and free flow of juices and wine at the bar.
While having dinner, we watched the preview of the first episode of MasterChef Junior US as seen below:
“For this event we wanted the audience to experience MasterChef Junior for themselves, and see what goes on in the show. Now we know that a lot actually goes into preparing a simple dish and the pressure behind it,” said Penny Tan Marketing Director of FOX International Channels.
“As demonstrated by our young chefs tonight, it is proven that kids have a lot of potential in terms of cooking, even more so that adults themselves. Age and size are obviously just numbers,” she laughed.
Eight kids from Young Chef’s Academy also joined us and they were to do a cook-off ala MasterChef with challenges and dishes to come up with. The kids range from 7 years to 12 years old. Their first challenge seemed pretty simple, beat an egg until it is stiff, so when they turned the bown upside down, the egg will not splash on them. Just in case, they were wearing rain coats, but I think all the kids successfully managed to complete the task, but those who did it fastest proceeded to the next round.
In the next round, they had to make patties for burgers. The 3 finalists had to pick some media from the crowd, well I wasn’t picked as I was sitting at the side. The adults had to assist them but most of the cooking was still by the kids. The end result burgers look pretty yummy, wish we got to try them, but only the judges get to taste and decide the winners. Everything was just like the show, except Gordon Ramsay was not around.
They judges deliberate while enjoying the burgers and finally picked a winner. Meanwhile, we continued to munch on the goodies and enjoyed the amazing ambience at this restaurant.
Finally, this boy won! I wish I can try his cooking.
I think kids can do so much more that we can imagine, and cooking is one of the many things that can excel in if given the opportunity. If you love kids and competitive cooking shows, or just any reality show, then don’t miss MasterChef Junior US tonight on Star World, it will start at 8.45pm HKT. There will be 12 contestants ranging from the age group of eight to thirteen hailing from different states in the US and they all hold a multitude of culinary skills and expertise, despite their very young age. I just love to watch them not just the cooking part, but just the way they talk with confidence is so funny and entertaining. I definitely want to watch this show with Josiah tonight and let him know that kids can be highly skilled and passionate while young in what they love, they don’t have to wait until they are grown up.
The rest of the pics: