Dissecting delicacies - The Super Chef journey continues

Many say that cooking is therapeutic. But can cooking actually be therapeutic when you are battling against the clock and several other contestants, with the stress of rejection looming over your head? For the contestants of Rupchanda-The Daily Star Super Chef 2016, such is the case. Making a dish is art all right, but when you know that the artwork you made will be dismembered, examined and scrutinised - and scored - things are not all 'therapeutic'.   

In the beginning of this week, we saw a contestant quit the kitchen to attend to some urgent family affairs. Meanwhile, the episode was marked by the presence of Chef Daniel C Gomes, Executive Chef of Galesia Hotel & Resort, as the guest judge. Daniel is an extremely popular chef. Having worked for 22 long years, the passionate man claims that not even for 22 seconds of it had he ever found his job to be boring. 

And to share that passion, he demonstrated making a delectable Spanish dessert, Floating Merry Berry Fruit Zesty. The participants got to experience firsthand the workings of a culinary maestro. And then, they had to replicate the dish. 

The dessert did not turn out to be a sweet ending for Mamun Chowdhury, the contestant who was eliminated in that round. It would not be wrong if someone considered Mamun - who works at the residence of the Australian High Commissioner in Bangladesh - to be a frontrunner in this competition, having displayed some fabulous cooking skills in the past days. 

The delicate art of dessert making is one challenging job that requires a lot of patience and precision, and just a little hint of imperfection may sometimes ruin the plate.

The top scorers were Runa Laila, a humble woman whose dish itself does the talking, and Masum Ahmed, who used to work as pastry chef at a reputed hotel. 

The Super Chef kitchen has choked Mamun out its doors. The kitchen may seem heartless, but it has its rules to live by. 

Keeping that in mind, it is supposed to find a replacement of the man who has resigned from the game, inviting one of the 'wild card' contestants on the waiting list, from the regional rounds of the competition.      

Who will enter the competition? What will s/he bring to the Super Chef kitchen? Will s/he be a game changer? We'll find out on tonight's episode.  

And tonight's episode will be an extraordinary one indeed! The contestants are going to pay a visit to Scholastica, where they will perform a task that will put not just their culinary skills - but their endurance and time and team management abilities - on test, with school children being the judges. 

Children are known to be brutally honest. And presumably, they won't be easy to impress. With the clock ticking, watch how pressure unfolds, and those who fold under the pressure. 

Who will win? Who will fail? Who will bid farewell to the Super Chef kitchen this time?

Get yourself popcorn and tune into ntv every Saturday and Sunday 9pm to see all the action. Flip to pg 5 to take part in the Rupchanda-The Daily Star Super Chef quiz!