Alpana Habib's smart and simple cooking

According to celebrity chef and TV personality Alpana Habib, cooking should be an enjoyable affair. Even in our busy lives, it ought not to be a hassle. For those with hectic jobs, going to the kitchen may at times be a little taxing. When Habib entered the Rupchanda-The Daily Star Super Chef kitchen yesterday, she had one goal in mind: to show the contestants how easily a corporate jobholder can make delectable dishes amid their busy schedule.

From making a quick lunch to bringing something to the dinner table in the end of a long, hard day at work, cooking should be hassle-free, simple, and easy. Habib did that by making multiple dishes for the participants.

Maymuna Akter, along with the other participants, watched her prepare the foods. “I was really impressed how she substituted butter with ghee to make white sauce,” she said. “Butter may not always be available in our homes; ghee is more common. Alpana Habib showed us how we can make something in short notice, with limited ingredients which are more or less always present in the household.”

“She demonstrated how we could make something with leftover food,” Asma Rupa, another contestant, who is a homemaker, said when referring to a beef recipe Habib made.

And Akter also admires Habib's attitude and approach regarding gastronomy. “She had told us to share recipes," Akter remembers. "The more you share with each other, the more everybody learns.”

“Of course, many among the participants might move forward to become chefs at restaurants or might want to pursue the culinary arts as a career. But in the end of the day, there is the notion of perceiving cooking as an everyday thing, and how enjoyable it can be even in our hectic lives. This is what I aimed to demonstrate at the class last night,” Alpana Habib had remarked. 

Indeed, yesterday was an enlightening experience for the participants. But one has to admit that last night was a rather easy and stress-free one: nobody faced the pang of elimination. However, the same cannot be said for tonight. Tonight, once again, it will be about blood, sweat and tears, as the contestants battle against each other to impress the judges. And on tonight's episode, the Super Chef kitchen is going to welcome yet another guest as a judge. We'll leave you with one clue: “Aynabaji”!     

Tune into ntv at 9pm, every Saturday and Sunday to find out what happens next in Rupchanda-The Daily Star Super Chef 2017.