Don’t worry dear readers, this was not a physical fight! hehe It was more of a challenge. One that involves creating the best pizza and be crowned the champ! (: Thanks to the Grosvenor Hotel and Tink PR, some food bloggers and I had the chance to get flour all over our fingers and learn the art of making a good pizza dough. I was definitely looking forward to creating my very own pizza! To be honest, I didn’t realize how serious the competition was until everyone was tweeting about bringing their own secret ingredient! And when I went empty handed, only one thing was on my mind ” uh-oh, I’m in big trouble ” haha. It made me super duper nervous! In addition to that, it was my first time meeting most of the people invited for this challenge – Iron Chef Shellie, I Eat Therefore I Am, I’m So Hungree, Brunch Addict, Sweet Cherrie Pie & Ms D (Never Too Sweet For Me). But I have to say, I really didn’t need to be nervous, cause everyone was so friendly (with their game face on hehe) and we had so much fun from the start to the end! Definitely a night to remember! (:
When everyone arrived, we were brought to our table by the gorgeous Julia (From Tink PR) and introduced Chef Emile to us! In the midst of all the introductions, the table was filled with a spread of chicken liver parfait & hot bread, antipasto and some arancini balls.
The chicken liver parfait was my favourite! It was so smooth and just perfect when spread on the bread. YUMS!
The arancini balls were the perfect bite size, and had bits of chicken in them! After filling out tummies, we headed towards the kitchen to learn about making the dough.
We each had our own dough to work on, and boy was it a work out to just get the dough right! I was standing next to Thanh and we just couldn’t stop laughing as we went along! We were lucky enough to have Chef Emile and Stefano there to give us a hand and to make sure we are on the right track!
After what felt like hours, our dough was finally ready to be cling wrapped and proofed!
While our doughs were proofing, Stefano took out a whole tray of perfect looking doughs so that we could learn how to stretch them by hand! The right hand stretches while the left hand rotates the dough! Definitely easier said than done, but I had so much fun! It was like playing with playdough haha
It was even an art to place them on the wooden boards before putting the ingredients on! And at this point, everyone had their game face on and were all ready for the challenge!
(Photo credits : Thanh from Instagram)
I stole this photo from Thanh cause it shows exactly how prepared we were with our “ping pong” bats! From the grin on our faces, you know how much fun we’re having! hehe
We all gathered around the table and Julia starts explaining how the challenge will be carried out. We were split into three groups so that the wood oven pizza won’t be over crowded. So off went the first group of savouries!
The first was Bakkwamon by Ashley of I’m So Hungree and it was inspired by her dad! Her secret ingredient was homemade bak kwa! Plus her pizza base was the gluten free one! hehe It was so delicious! I could just eat the bak kwa all night long! (:
This was one of my favourites of the savouries for the night! It was Shellie’s (Iron Chef Shellie) banhmigeddon! The lemongrass chicken was SO GOOD! I was super tempted to go for seconds but had to control myself cause I had alot more to taste through the night hehe
Thanh (I Eat Therefore I Am) made the karaage kid – He brought in pieces of crispy karaage (fried chicken) and drizzled yummy roasted sesame sauce! That’s pure magic and was also one that I really enjoyed for the night! (:
Second round includes :
Fiddle to the Fennel was created by Scott of Brunch Addict! How cute is the name? I’m not a but fan of fennel but this was so good and the sweetness of the caramelised onions just stood out with every bite! Noms!
Sabrina of Brunch Addict made Baa Baa’s Delight and how pretty are the beets on the pizza? With the classic combination of lamb and minted yogurt, this was also really good! In fact everyone’s pizza were awesome creations and it was so difficult to rate them!
After all the savouries, of course up comes the sweets! Even though we were all quite full by then, there is always room for dessert yes? YES! Cause I decided to walk on the sweet side that evening, together with Miss D (of course!) and Cherrie! We were spoilt for choice for the ingredients and ended up using almost similar things with slight variations of each! So it was definitely a close fight!
Cherrie made hers with a dulce de leche base, mashed banans, almond flakes and her secret ingredient, bacon! The combination of sweet and savoury was just brilliant! Almost reminded me of the Elvis sandwich which I LOVE! hehe
Our dearest queen of sweets, Daisy (Never Too Sweet For Me) of course created a dessert pizza for the night! hehe Her was called ‘Sweet Attack’ and it had dulce de leche as the base, with almond flakes, almond crumble, honeycomb and nutella! It was deliciously sweet! hehe Everyone loved it! Noms!
Once everyone had scored their peers (including our own creations), Julia and Chef Emile went into another area to add up the scores and after 20 minutes, the winners were announced! There was a tie in the first place and it was none other than the Banhmigeddon (by Shellie) and Sweet Attack (by Daisy)! Congrats girls!! And to my surprise, I came in second! WHEEEEE! (: And our pizzas went on as their specials the following day and will be on their specials for the next week for everyone to try!
So I need your help dear readers! Please head to the Grosvenor Hotel’s Facebook page and vote for my pizza! Every single vote counts! Plus if you are around the area, or feel like a pizza for dessert, do head down to Grosvenor Hotel to get some. You can either dine in or takeaway and for just $17 (and $12 on Tuesdays!). Every pizza you order is considered a vote too!
So do click on the link above or just head to https://www.facebook.com/grosvenorhotelstkilda and search for the picture of my pizza and “like” ! Your help and support is greatly appreciated! (:
Thank you all once again and especially those who have already voted! One more week and the winner will be announced! hehe Fingers and toes crossed! (: Thank you Grosvenor Hotel, Chef Emile and Julia for organising such an awesome event!
Disclaimer : I was invited to this pizza making event as a guest of Grovenor Hotel and Tink PR.