MasterChef Madagascar

Matt and I were invited to participate in the third annual MasterChef Madagascar Cooking Competition, put on by another couple here in the village. This was our first year participating, and we completely under estimated the level of talent and work that people would put into their dishes.  I was so impressed!

Here's how it went:
Everyone interested in participating was welcome to either work on their own or as a team. Matt and I both like to cook and experiment, so we decided we would be a team. There ended up being 5 teams in total. We all met at the hosts house one afternoon, a month before the competition to find out the theme of the evening and the rules.
The theme was colours! So there were predetermined options, and a representative of each team drew 2 colours out of a hat. We ended up with purple and orange. I thought that would be very easy, but it wasn't as easy as I thought! There were to be 16 people in total, 5 teams and the spouses that weren't cooking. We were to make small, appetizer sized dishes, as there would be 5 courses plus appetizers and dessert. We also randomly selected the order of presentation and Matt and I were last - also not the best position to be in. They were to be fancy, original, not something you'd normally make at home, and your colours were to remain a secret until your plate was served. We were also not allowed to make anything with artificial colours to get our chosen colour. If you needed pink, for example, you had to find a natural way to dye the food pink. We also couldn't buy pre coloured items, just to make it even more challenging :)
To top it off, you had 15 minutes to plate and serve your meal. Yikes!

So - we found many different recipes, but had to continuously change them because of not being able to find items such as a yam, or purple cabbage. Even if we could it was hard to find in the quantities needed to not only test it out, but to feed 16 people. The competition was on a Saturday, and we finally found a recipe that we could get all the ingredients (or so we thought) on Thursday. We made ourselves a sample and it was delicious, so we sent off the title of our dish for the menu and were happy with our choice.

Saturday came and most of the day was spent doing the prep. Being the last group out of 5 we needed something that was light, easy to prep and still pretty. We had chosen a Salt Roasted Beet salad with Goat Cheese and Toasted Walnuts.

http://www.alexandracooks.com/2010/04/29/salt-roasted-beets-with-goat-cheese-and-toasted-walnuts/

Of course, when we went to the store to get the last few ingredients that we needed a little more of, they couldn't be found. So, we had a tiny quantity of goat cheese, and couldn't find a reasonable alternative. For a salad, the prep took a rather long time, and we finished just in time to shower, make ourselves presentable and head over to dinner.

The evening started at 6:30, and we were welcomed to the patio for tasty appetizers and drinks. The first team started their prep and when they were ready to plate, a timer was started for 15 minutes and we all took our seats.  After trying a course we had a little note pad to write down our thoughts, so that we could score the dishes at the end of the evening. Once the plates were served we had to see if we could guess what the colours were. The meal was to consist of mostly your colours, and no more than a 70/30 split between the two. If your colours weren't easily found then you lost points. The other areas of grading were originality, taste, and presentation. The first dish was done by another couple who were participating for the first time, and they made absolutely delicious empanadas.

Mark and Karrina's plated Empanadas. Course #1

After we finished one course, the next team started their prep. The timer only started when they were ready to attempt plating their meals. Once that timer was started, the plates had to be on the table before it went off. You also had time to give a little speech if you wanted, to tell funny stories about how you ended up with your recipe, difficulties you had when making it (there were many) or anything else you wanted to say. 

When the second meal came out, Matt I definitely felt in inadequate. I couldn't believe the level of work, or how delicious it was! 

Natsuko and Renate's "Flying Kite". Course #2.
What you are seeing is a lovely little landscape scene. The grass was made of mushy peas, the trees were dark greens, there was a kite made of deep fried seaweed, a sun made of a lime, a cloud that was the most deliciously cooked fish with black sesame seeds, and teriyaki sauce for rain. They even made tiny little flowers out of sesame seeds that were on the mushy peas. Wow!

The photo doesn't really do it justice. It was absolutely beautiful and so delicious! Their colours were black and dark green.

After the second course, we were asked to look behind our chairs and see what colour dot was stuck to it. Those of us with yellow dots had to gather our drinks and note pads and move clockwise to the nearest seat vacated by someone else with a yellow dot. This was to make sure that we chatted with lots of different people through out the night. Then it was time for the third course.

Stephanie (our host and the mastermind behind the evening) and Delphine's Sun Mezze trio. This was a very interesting meal with interactive pieces of the dish. In case you can't tell their colours were yellow and light green :) This was also very delicious.

The fourth course was served up immediately, and I was very curious how they achieved the vivid colours. Many unexpected and delicious flavours in this "Grand Trio". It looks like it should be all sweet flavours, but they were all savoury. I suppose I should mention that no one was allowed to make dessert. 

Sophie and Mariam and their tasty concoctions! Look at that pink! They achieved those colours by dyeing the ingredients with beet juice!

Again, between the 4th and 5th course, people moved chairs, this time those with blue dots on their chair. Then it was our turn! Because we had made a salad that didn't require any heating up before serving, we didn't need a lot of time before plating the meal. Just chopping up some oranges for garnish and then the timer was started. It takes a lot longer than you'd think to plate 16 salads in a pretty fashion, and we didn't start serving the plates until we had just under 1 minute left on the timer.  The photos look like we aren't in a panic, but I was totally in a panic :) Those that know me should not be surprised.

And here is our finished product:

Tada! The dressing was an orange reduction, so the idea with the oranges as a garnish was not only to see our colours, but to give people the option to squeeze some fresh citrus onto the salad to enhance the citrus flavour. 

We were a little bit disappointed, as it wasn't as delicious as the first time we made it for ourselves, but we blame the lack of goat cheese (everyone only got about 5 tiny little squares of it), and we didn't put enough dressing on the salad. Other than that it was exactly what we were going for with a nice light last course. 

We were then given a chance to anonymously score each dish out of 10, and while the results were being tallied by independent parties, we played a game! The hosts had put together a play list with songs that had a colour in either the song title or the artists name. We were separated into teams and had to guess what the song was. We started out with 40 seconds to listen and ended up at 5. Then the last round, one member of the team had to listen with headphones to the music and hum the song for the rest of their team. It was so much fun, and I finally got a little validation for my "terrible music selection" on my iPod as I knew many of the more obscure songs and artists. Ha! 

After the game, we all returned to the table for an absolutely delicious desert of B52's, red velvet cupcakes, caramel pecan bark, and a tasty coconut snowball type of treat. Suffice it to say, Matt and I did not win the competition. The luck winners were Renate and Natsuko with their Flying Kite meal. Second place was the Sun Mezze Trio. The winners received a trophy, and a Masterchef Madagascar apron that the hosts had made for them. 

The winners! Well deserved as well - I scored their meal 10/10!

Matt and I finally made our way home around midnight, with full tummies and having fully enjoyed ourselves. I couldn't thank our hosts enough for the amount of effort that went into the full evening. Not only did Stephanie participate in the challenge, but she also made all the appetizers and the desserts, as well as decorated the house, hired staff to help with the evening, and invited us all into her home. Definitely inspired us to do this once we return home. I'm sad we won't be here next year to participate again and up our game! And regardless of the challenge, it was a lovely evening with great people and amazingly delicious food!