iChef Cooking Competition Preliminary Rounds Results

Congratulations to all teams who took part in the iChef cooking competition preliminary rounds from 5 – 9 September 2011, organised by the School of Hospitality, Republic Polytechnic.

The semi-finalists have been selected! As there were teams who tied, 24 teams will move on to the semi-finals, and they are one step closer to gain a place on the podium to win the iPads and cash prizes.

The top 24 teams (in alphabetical order) are:

  1. Airline Caterers
  2. Awesome
  3. Cabeza
  4. Chef Chia!
  5. Epicurious Girls
  6. Food Chemistry!
  7. Food Lovers
  8. Fuzors
  1. Ilya and Shi En
  2. IncredibleChefs
  3. Jasling
  4. Jolyn&SiXian
  5. L
  6. Lady Gaga
  7. LepakBros
  8. Passion
  1. SenClaud
  2. The ChampZ Chef
  3. Three Chefs
  4. Three Ms
  5. Tracy And Tiffany
  6. TWSSiChef
  7. Unity Team
  8. WOW!

The winning teams from the preliminary round must now pit their culinary skills against one another in the semi-finals to be held on 12 November 2011. The difficulty is upped a notch. Winning a place in the finals will not be an easy ride. The teams would need to impress the panel of judges with their ability to innovate and interpret a designated recipe of poultry, Dilmah tea leaves and sponsored sauces!

A special thank you to all the teachers, chefs and sponsors for their strong support!

To the semi-finalists, congratulations once again and see you on 12 November 2011!  Look out for the communiqué on details of the semi-finals.

Memories of iChef Preliminary Rounds

Teams were tasked to prepare a dish within 2 hours, using the designated poultry ingredient and sponsored ingredients including Naturel oil and Woh Hup sauces. Many of the contestants also recounted their hours of preparation, checking and rechecking of lists and the numerous mise en place leading to the cook-off.















It required a lot of thinking out of the box and courage for many of the contestants to manipulate the induction cooker and other cooking equipment in the Oliva competition kitchen and put together their dishes.



With so many amazing creations, it took a whole panel of judges to taste and evaluate the culinary creations. Contestants brought in their best recipes and waited nervously while the judges sampled and asked them to elaborate on their cooking methods, usage of sponsored ingredients, choice of recipe and presentation. Some fumbled on their answers while some proved themselves worthy of a greater challenge - the semi-finals. The judges' eyeballs seemed to widen with every new entry placed on the judging table. One thing stood out and it was PRESENTATION! Most of the dishes that were presented were exquisite and beautiful; they had fancy plates, dish towels, baskets - all sorts of creative accents to the dish. Kudos to the contestants for demonstrating such culinary excellence!





The contestants also had a taste of being a celebrity. They were interviewed and enjoyed a photo-shoot after their judging session.



Congratulations once again! It may be a competition but as long as you know you have done your best, it does not matter where you have placed. You are all winners!!! We hope to see more schools participating again next year!

Thank you everyone for entering into the spirit of iChef – keep developing your recipes for next year. There will be more opportunities coming your way!