Junior Masterchef Australia 2010

While most kids between 8-12 would be spending their off-school hours either playing or attending tuition (getting competitive these days), I was surprised to find that in Australia, quite a handful of these youngsters have developed a mastery of the art of cooking!

Today, tired after washing my car (not physically tired because of the work, but *tired* because it started raining just as I finished), I sat down to watch TV for awhile. This was quite a rare event, these days, as most of the time the TV was on for my kids, who would rather watch Mickey Mouse and Barney than anything else....

Anyway, flipping through the channels, I came across an interesting show - "Junior Masterchef Australia 2010". It was a basically a cooking contest, similar to the "Iron chef" and "Hell's Kitchen" only instead of adult contestants, Junior Masterchef Australia contestants were just kids....

Just kids - hmm, maybe I should drop the "just", as they weren't the average kids you find running around the football field or going for art class. Basically, once the 8 contestants of a heat were lined up, they were given 45 minutes to whip up their best meal to impress the panel of judges. There were 3 judges in the beginning, though one more joined in halfway through the show. From the reaction of the audience, the judges must have been some famous people in Australia, but forgive this ignorant Malaysian for not recognizing any of them....

Now, these kids weren't just cooking simple stuff like scrambled eggs or fish and chips. They put together really presentable "restaurant-like" stuff like "Gout De La Mer" and "Chocolate Fondant with Raspberry Coulis and Fresh Berries".

They were cooking using induction heaters and ovens, so there weren't any open flames. While there were a couple of mishaps, like setting the oven on "Grill", resulting in a slightly overcooked pie, for the most part, their dishes were spot on. Hmm, when it comes to cooking, I only know how to boil water and prepare basic instant noodles (Maggi Mee), so hats off to them from me!

Well, if your kids show some keen interest in the subject matter, why not support them and let them learn up the skill of cooking (under adult supervision, of course)? You'll never know, someday they might end up as the next Chef Wan or Stephen Yan (who is not related to Martin Yan, another famous chef).

For more information, do check out the Masterchef Australia website at : http://www.masterchef.com.au/