By Clodomiro Cafolla, Postgraduate Tutor
Food. A fundamental need nourishing us, but also a unique opportunity to foster relationships with friends and family, and a bright route to explore new cultures and lifestyles. In other words, a perfect way to promote the values of equality, diversity and inclusion St john’s is famous for. Thus, after a very successful edition of the John’s virtual MasterChef, the College proudly hosted the very first in person MasterChef competition.
The event took place on Saturday 5 December with a number of students and staff turning up in Leech Hall at 7.30 pm on the dot, curious and keen to experiencing a wide spectrum of culinary creations ranging from truly British and Chinese cuisines, to Sri-Lanka, Italy, USA and UK inspired dishes.
The competition did indeed see 7 groups of students challenging each other with brilliant menus from all over the world, so brilliant that the judges had some hard time to award the winning prize. The judges, you may be wondering? Yes, this was a proper competition with highly qualified judges- no bias at all here 😉
The judges were indeed your friendly neighbourhood RT Miro, the SCJR Social Events SuperStar Naomi and the Catering Staff cornerstone Chloe. The level of the competition was really high and all the participants were within one or two marks from each other.
And the winners were…
Charlotte Fife and Grace Lloyd with their Sri-Lanka inspired vegan curry. Simply, a perfect balance of tastes.
The judges also awarded a special mention, alongside an Amazon voucher, to:
Ming and Jemma with their yankee-like coffee cheesecake and truly Chinese egg yolk and mashed taro cookies- an incredible journey to the far East culture.
Jay Ford, Mae Philipps and Becky West with their Italian style tiramisu brownies- they definitely got Miro onboard as soon as they mentioned that their recipe was inspired by Italian culture. A clear example of an unbiased judge…
JIaxuan wowed the judges with her RouJiaMo, a delicious Chinese Hamburger. Here’s what she had to say about the event “I really enjoyed this event, thank you guys for holding this event and provide this opportunity to us to sharing food and knowing each others.” And here are some incredible photos she took of the cooking process – everything looks so delicious!
Thanks to all the students, Johnians and not, and staff who came to the event and tasted some amazing culinary creations.
We look forward to seeing you for another MasterChef event next term… with some novelties we are sure you will love- including a vote from the people!
John's Chronicle 