The Final - Having my Ducks in a Row

What a day. I was in the kitchen at 6:00 am. Seven of us cooked today while our partners acted as assistants. They were only allowed to help with fetch and carry, and cleaning. Poor Dennis, I know I worked his butt of!! Thanks partner - it will be pay back tomorrow. We staggered our start time. Twenty minutes apart with each having 3 hours to cook and 20 minutes to serve.

I went off 6th. I was so nervous. Even though I had my timeline down to the last detail, my written packet all typed up and everything mised and ready to go, I still felt like I was going to get sick. I used to compete in triathlons and it kind of felt like race day.

Go. The difference between cooking and racing is that triathlons take forever and in the kitchen, time flies by.
I cannot believe how fast the three hours went. I kept to my timeline pretty well and stayed fairly focused. I did go over my time allowance by a few minutes, but I did get out all my dishes and received favorable critiques, despite a few problems. It was intense.

It's the closest I'll ever get to being a Top Chef

My food was eaten and critiqued so the pictures of my dishes above are from practice sessions.It gives you the idea.

I came home and took a nap. (More like passed out.) For dinner, I marinated some lamb loins to BBQ then served them with a little green sauce of mint, parsley, capers and anchovies left over from the other night, cous cous, and a tomato and cucumber salad with the leftover dressing and greens from my final today. My husband was pleasantly surprised and impressed that I made dinner. I told him that this meal felt like heating up TV dinner after what I did earlier
It's like taking a ski run on a double black diamond and after making your way down to the bottom you finish on a cruiser bunny run that feels effortless.

It was a Cherry on Top Ending for me.

Goodnight.