I Wanna Win Too!!!

Last month there was a competition on the Discovery Travel and Living channel that I happened to take part in. Now I generally never take part in stuff like this because I never win anything but for some reason I felt compelled to give this one a shot. The contest required the entries to write 50 words ONLY about either Jamie Oliver, Anthony Bourdain, or Kylie Kwong. These 3 chefs all have their own shows on the travel and living channel and they all own their own restaurants. Anthony in NYC owns Les Halles, Jamie in London owns Fifteen, and Kylie in Sydney owns Billy Kwong. The winner receives 2 business class tickets from Malaysian Airlines, to whichever destination they chose, 2 nights in a grand hotel, and of course a paid meal at the restaurant they selected.

All 3 of their shows are quite entertaining. Jamie is a fairly young “bloke” and typically English. He puts together quick meals that come out looking quite tasty. He is also in a band playing the drums. His shows are very personal as he cooks for friends casually and occasionally goes a bit fancy to cater a buddy’s cocktail party or something. My most memorable show was the one where he cooked breakfast for about 6 or 7 seven girls, after a night of clubbing. He made some fruity cereal and other sweet things but the mouth watering delight was what I would call the breakfast pizza. Dude, it was inspirational. He took a large Teflon coated pan and set some halved tomatoes, a couple bangers, some bacon, and basically whatever you fancy, to slowly fry in the pan. Later he spread the contents of the pan out fairly, giving each area of the pan a good variety of the contents, then he proceeded to slowly crack open some egg’s into the areas where there were large enough gaps to hold the yolks. So I don’t know if you can picture this, but the yolk held fast as the whites flow into all the empty areas between you meats creating a sort of mold holding everything together. There were a good 4 or 5 egg’s in there. After letting it cook a while he then set the pan in the oven, with only top heat on, for a few minutes only, giving the yolks a chance to cook just a little bit. When he was done, the breakfast pizza slid right out the pan and into a large plate. The chicks were going at it shamelessly with thick slices of lightly toasted bread, at which point even I stopped checkin out the hunnies. In’it!!!

As for Kylie, I would say her show is just alright. I guess it might have to do with the fact that being Chinese/Australian, she cooks mostly everything with an Asian twist. And I get enough Chinese/Asian food out here. Some if the dishes she comes up with are quite mouth watering but I just don’t get a kick out of her show. But for that matter, she is probably not targeted to my demographic. One thing worth mentioning about Kylie is her accent. Now I have heard Australian accents, and I have heard Australian accents… But this chick really takes it over board. I mean, sometimes I can’t even understand what she is going on about. I like a light accent here and there but this was just too much. (I love Aussies anyways). And as far as the contest goes, who in Asia would opt to go to Sydney over London and NYC? Its just around the corner mate!

Anthony Bourdain is THE MAN. His show is called “A Cooks Tour”. He travels around the world with an open mind to try pretty much anything thing that comes his way. He had enough of rubbing shoulders with the cream of the crop at his NYC Resto and decided to head out on a journey that I would refer to as the equivalent of soul searching, for a chef. I have watched him eat insects in Thailand and Fugu in Japan, with the same passion and attention that he gives while eating at the finest restaurants in Europe. He occasionally visits a fellow chef in some random country where he gets assaulted with a stream of dishes to throw him off guard and blow him away. On this show I really got to witness how chef’s can communicate with one another through their cuisine bringing a real depth to the art. Apart from that, Anthony has no arrogance to him. He is just out there to savour every day as it rolls upon him. He kind of reminds me of the Grasshopper in Kung-Fu. You know, David Cardaine, all mellow and introspective. He is down-to-earth and open minded. I chose to visit his restaurant in NYC and submitted the following 50 words for the contest. Now it is kind of silly sounding but I tell you 50 words is nothing when you are writing but I made use of every single one…

“Anthony Bourdain exaggerates his desire to experience and savor inventive cuisine. I consider myself to also have a similar approach towards life and food, and I have a desire to experience how Anthony has integrated his adventures into his menu at Les Halles. It’s an opportunity of a life time.”

So that was that and the competition ended on the 28th of April. So where the fuck are the results? There is no information on the website about the winners, nor is there even mention of the competition. How does this shit works? I mean if I am not gonna win at least tell me who did. The suspense is killing me. They put adds on for this competition at least 5 times a day when it was on and now that it is over there is no mention at all. I need to go to NYC to visit my brother Neelu cause he is having a baby. And I know my buddy Suraj over there could do with some good company. This ain’t right people. They can’t leave me hanging like this. I am loosing sleep here. Positive thinking right Rishi, I am going to win… Well I hope to see you soon fella’s so think positive for me too.