I love the show Masterchef. Canadian and American versions. I considered auditioning for the show, was even invited by the Canadian producers to do so. However, I have my own business and taking 40 days off was not something I could do. Plus, it would be embarrassing if the Fluudbloggler got kicked off on the first show.
So I have to content myself with playing Masterchef with my friends. We've done different variations on the theme, but basically what happens is my friends bring food, that I don't know about beforehand (aka a "mystery box"), and I have 60 minutes to put a delish dinner on the table. While my friends watch and drink wine. Some may think this is not fair, and if you want to plan these types of parties yourselves, maybe considering taking turns would work for you. Most of my friends like to eat, but don't necessarily like to cook. I like to do both so it works for us.
So if you are ready for a different kind of dinner party, check out the instructions below. Our apologies to the real Masterchef judges, producers, and logo creators.
How to host a Masterchef-ish night for your friends:
- Invite at least 3 other people, but no more than 7 because that gets too complicated and hard to cook for in an hour.
- Decide on food categories that you would like them to bring. We usually stick to the following: - minor protein; spice; cooking liquid; starch or side; fruits and/or veggies; spice; misc.
- Decide who is going to bring which category - but keep your picks secret.
- All guests together chip in for the main meat, and all decide together what that meat is. (Or designate one person to only bring the main meat.)
- The rest is up to you to develop the rules. We have also varied these. Some of those ideas are listed below.
- All guests are given a specific time to arrive, but one person is in charge of placing all the items in the mystery box (we found it was easier to have one box, and not several).
- Give the "chef" 10 minutes to look at the box items, and decide what they are cooking. Then they have 60 minutes to cook dinner. If the 60 minutes isn't attained, you can decide what the penalty will be.
- Enjoy!
Here are some rules we have used, but you can make up your own. After 4 of these nights, we have changed some things up.
- allow the chef to use only a certain number of items from their own pantry. I usually get 4, and those picks are olive oil, garlic, chicken stock, and salt & pepper (counts as one item).
- if you like drinking, give the chef the option to take a shot for each additional ingredient from their own pantry.
- if there are 5 guests, the chef has to use at least 3 of the ingredients from each guest
- if you have only 3 guests, the chef has to use ALL the ingredients brought.
- decide if the misc. item is a "normal" entree ingredient, or if it's going to be a "weird" item. I was given animal crackers once, and prickly pear.
- since this is like Masterchef, don't allow the chef to look up any recipes once the game starts
- be prepared for a disaster. If the chef can't pull it off, have a local pizza delivery on call.
This is what my friend Laura brought to our first Masterchef night.
This is what my friend Juliette brought to our first Masterchef night.
If you want to see more. Check out my Facebook page and see the video created by my friend Christine.
What would you make with these ingredients?
Last night I was given a reprieve. Most of our regular Masterchef party group wasn't available, but another friend and her father were in town from Calgary. So we held an impromptu night. Our young friend Emily took on the challenge of cooking for us. It was hard to stay out of the kitchen. Here's what we gave her.
Pork tenderloin coated with basil and garlic (pantry item) cooked in a sauce made with Red Bull, white figs, and Werther's Caramel Apple candies - I think some of her white wine got spilled into that as well. Mashed potatoes with avacado and cream, and fava beans with cream and pepperoni.
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