• First rule: Taste basically covers half of the score sheet. After all, it is a cooking competition. Likewise, taste is the only judging criteria that is bias and unpredictable. If one dislike your dish due to personal preference, you can get low marks. It can go either ways, good or bad. Therefore it is important to plan smartly.
• Second rule: With the given time of 45 minutes, plan a dish that you think is possible to execute. Do not create a dish just so to impress the judges. No matter how good the taste or the presentation is, if you can’t present your dish on time, you are penalize for late service; or worst, you can get disqualified. A bad dish example would be cod fish with spinach and herb butter wrapped in puff pastry served with hollandaise sauce, vegetable cassoulet and saffron risotto. If you can present the given dish in 45 minutes, you are a genius.
• Third Rule: One dish is only needed for judging. Therefore, if you think that you are not going to make it on time, focus on just one plating. Even though the plate that you submitted for display is messy, it will not be judged. I have witnessed it myself. I remembered this person who presented a unfinished plating and still manage to win gold.
• Forth Rule: You will be surprise if you went there unprepared. Since the oven is provided on a sharing basis, you will have no control over it. As one says, every man for himself. I have seen a few trying to sabotage other people dish by altering the temperature. Therefore, it is best to bring your own oven. As the kitchen provides a power socket, it should not be a problem at all. Also, I recommend that you bring a multi power adapter that has several power sockets. In this way, you will be able to plug in more kitchen equipments like the food processor, food blender, immersion blender.
• Fifth rule: Be mindful of what you can bring and what you can’t bring, what you can do and what you can’t do. This is because your points will be deducted if you did not follow the rule. For example, it says that fish/seafood/shellfish can be clean, filleted but not portioned or cooked. However, to cut time, you decided to portion the fish beforehand. If you got caught, you will leave a bad first impression and throughout the competition, you will be judged more harshly. Nevertheless, play with the rules. Ask your mentor for advice. Their experience will tell you the right thing to do. For example, I wanted to remove the skin of cherry tomato to make confit tomato. Side Note: Confit, is a cooking process that cooks food in flavored oil under low temperature. The best way to remove tomato skin is by blanching in hot water and quickly soak in ice water. However, the rule stated that vegetables can be peeled and cut but not cooked. Since the cherry tomato undergoes some sort of cooking, I thought that blanching is not allowed. It was until my chef told me that it’s fine to do so. Why? Ask your mentor for answer…

Taken from CityGas FaceBook Photo The weightage for the judging score on a dish is as followed:  protein (50%), sauce (25%), starch (20) and vegetable (5%). As my category suggested - fish/seafood either alone or as a combination, it is important that the meat is the star of the dish. I used both fish and seafood. Choose your ingredients wisely. I preferred those that can be found easily in the local supermarket. In this way, I can practice more with the ingredients and hone my skills. Having to said that, uncommon ingredients such like (zucchini flower, baby squash, edible flower, pigeon, rabbits) can set you dish apart from the rest. For fish, I recommend cod fish, sea bass, salmon and halibut. For seafood, I recommend tiger prawn, squid, baby octopus and scallops. Marinate/cure the meat helps to intensify the flavor and mist the odor of the meat. For sauce, I recommend something that pairs well with the protein. It would be the best if it goes well with the other components in the dish. A good sauce is flavorful, clear looking and has a good flow consistency. I highly suggest basic sauce such as velouté sauce or jus. If not, try something that can show off your technical skill such as tbeurre blanc and hollandaise sauce. For starch, it is up to you. Bread, legumes, grains, risotto, polenta, potato are few of the excellent choices. In recent news, Quinoa has been named as one of the few food trend. This is because quinoa is packed with nutrients and it’s beneficial to our body– something that is worth trying. For vegetables, try to include both leafy and non leafy vegetables. When vegetables are use right, it can help to brighten the dish. This is because vegetables are colourful. Few great choices are tomato, broccoli, spinach, yellow squash, brussels sprouts, carrot, asparagus, chervil and parleys. Also, the best way to cook vegetable is by poaching in butter stock. Butter helps to glaze the vegetable, making it look more appetizing.

We WON! Both photos taken from Singapore Junior Chefs Club Facebook Photo