From Studio To The Kitchen By Sharmila Billot Celebrity Cookout contestants comprising celebrities (from left) Hannah, Eja, Daphne, Nazrudin, Vanida and Aishah. SHARMILA BILLOT previews Celebrity Cookout which sees stars battling it out in a cooking competition in the name of charity DELICIOUS food, celebrities and charity. That basically spells out ntv7’s new cooking competition show called Celebrity Cookout. Sixteen celebrities will showcase their cooking and baking talents all in the name of charity with the RM50,000 prize to be distributed to the various charity organisations. The five-episode competition hosted by Daphne Iking has celebrities like Azhar Sulaiman, Sheila Rusly, Amber Chia, Carmen Soo, Tony Eusoff, Jehan Miskin, Eja, Vanida Imran, Nazrudin Rahman, Ferhad, Sarimah Ibrahim, Andy of Hitz TV, Dino of Frequency Cannon, Aishah and Ashraf Sinclair, and Hannah Tan participating in the show. In each episode, two or four celebrities will be divided into two to compete against each other to win RM10,000 for the charity of their choice. Their task is to create “the ultimate cake” and two recipes for a special occasion based on a theme, consisting of a main course and a drink. They will be judged by the CEO of Secret Recipe, Datuk Steven Sim and well-known interior designer Eric Leong based on these three criteria: creativity/originality of concept, taste and presentation. The main sponsor for the show, Secret Recipe, will sell the winning cake in all its outlets from October to December and donate RM10 from each cake sold to the needy and underprivileged. “What's interesting is that most of the celebrities do not know how to cook but manage somehow to bake the cakes and turn out some interesting dishes,” said Leong. “I’m the ‘bad’ judge in the competition. If it's bad, you can see it in my expression. Some of the drink concoctions tasted like air longkang (ditch water) but at the same time, there were some good dishes created. “I was mostly in charge of the design, styling and presentation of the food and Datuk Steven was in charge of the taste. “Overall, I think everyone did pretty well in baking but when it came to cooking, that was a bit of a challenge as most of them didn't know what they were doing,” added Leong. For Hannah, this was her first time baking a cake but as for cooking, she considers herself a moderate cook. “My theme was ‘truly Malaysian’, so I designed a cheese cake with a chocolate brownie in a shape of a T, which stands for ‘truly’. I chose chocolate and cheese because most Malaysians love these two ingredients,” Hannah said. As for Tony, he cannot cook except for simple dishes, so it was a challenge for him to bake a cake and cook a main meal. “It was actually quite an achievement for me and my partner Jehan as we are clueless when it comes to cooking,” he said. “Some people are good in cooking. Unfortunately, I'm just good in eating what people have cooked!” “My friend gave us the ingredients for the chocolate hazelnut cake and it turned out pretty well, but the spaghetti didn’t quite turn out how we expected,” added Tony. Aishah considers herself “all right” as a cook as she does a bit of cooking whenever possible. “I’m also not a first-timer to baking, so I kind of knew what to do but, I was worried about getting it right,” said Aishah. “The theme was ‘cake for our mother’ and I choose my mother’s favourite cake, orange caramel,” added Aishah. As for Nazrudin, he can cook basic stuff. “Lucky for me, my partner Ferhad knows some cooking. Our theme was ‘deliciously healthy’, so we came up with flourless chocolate cake,” said Nazrudin. “I learnt that planning and following instructions accurately when it comes to baking will get you a perfect cake,” added Nazrudin. Celebrity Cookout debuts on Sunday at 9pm. It will be screened for five consecutive weeks. Article, Features @ NST Online ... 'Friday September 7th, 2007