Super Chef episode 9: A pinky promise made

Ayesha Siddiky, affectionately known as Pinky, opened the mystery box before her, wondering what she could create. The box unveiled its secrets slowly; three components, emitting three rounds of collective gasps from each remaining participant. The jadur baksho (magic box) challenge never failed to be exacting and this was going to be no different. This week, the participants had to work with koral, king prawn and dory. Pinky must have been thinking what blend would work best. She had shown her prowess with rupchanda fish in the last jadur baksho challenge and had proven her penchant to work with seafood. It can thus be said that her heart was now caught up in two conflicting emotions of trepidation and hope.

The judges had put in a lot of thought behind each of the tasks to befall the participants. Carefully tailored cooking classes were planned ahead, allowing the prospective Super Chefs to add to their skill-set. Each challenge was designed to not only bring out the best but to methodically test the challengers' abilities to prove their skills and prepare them for whatever was about to come.

After the previous jadur baksho challenge consisting of just one fish, this time there was more variety. The judges wanted to see how much knowledge the participants had of combining different but complementary elements. These could be used to either produce one stellar dish or a number of courses, seamlessly transitioning from one to another. This challenge revealed another almost unspoken facet of the Super Chef competition; chefs need not just have the ability to cook but also must come with the promise of creativity. The ability to create brand new dishes would thus be considered a prerequisite to being a Super Chef and this jadur baksho challenge was conceived to serve that very need.

Pinky would go on to prevail in front of celebrity guest Bijori Barkatullah, the famous actress. Bijori was thoroughly impressed and so were the rest of the judges. While Pinky celebrated, Ferdous Ara Tuin, the 24-year old businesswoman from Rajshahi would not share the same fate. Ferdous Ara Tuin, known as Lucky, would bid farewell.

Tonight, yet another Chef demonstration would be held by Chef Dipu, from Ruposhi Bangla. A dessert connoisseur, expect to be left with a sweet tooth at the end of proceedings. Tune into ntv at 9:00 pm, every Saturday and Sunday to find out what happens next in Rupchanda-The Daily Star Super Chef 2017.