Thinking of joining a cooking competition? We're absolutely in your corner and rooting for you! Here are our tips to maximise your chances of winning.
1. Eat, eat, eat!
Also conveniently our favourite tip! The name of the game is research - trying more foods means exposing your palate to different flavours and taste combos, getting those creative juices flowing for when you have to create new dishes in a time crunch!
Expose your palette to as many taste combinations as possible! Source: Getty Images
2. Have at least 1 surefire recipe up your sleeve
Got a favourite recipe that's been passed down for generations? Make sure to get all the deets from your mum/dad/grandparents/aunty, and then get it down pat before the competition! Remember, "mum's handful" is not really a unit of measurement, so give the recipe a go before you have to perform it under pressure!
We've got your back
When mothers and grandmothers know best
Got an old family recipe passed down for generations? That's your ace in the hole, right there. Source: Getty Images
3. Cook more than you need
Pop quiz: it's the day of the comp and you have to make 4 portions of chicken for judging. So how many portions do you actually cook? If you can, cook one and a half times to double what you actually need for insurance. Then, simply pick the best specimens to plate up! There's nothing worse than accidentally burning a little bit, and having to start the whole process all over again!
A Lebanese specialty: baked kibbeh (kibbeh bil sayneeye), laced with the seven-spice blend baharat. Source: Alan Benson
4. Try cooking in someone else’s kitchen
If there's one thing you can be (generally) be sure about, is that the competition is not going to be held in your kitchen, amongst all of your things, laid out the way you're used to. Cooking in someone else's kitchen is definitely going to throw you for a loop, and prepare you for the disorientation of cooking in a studio kitchen, where nothing is where you'd expect it to be!
Cooking in other kitchens will help you adjust to cooking in unfamiliar environments, like a studio kitchen! Source: SBS Food
5. Practise, practise, practise!
Needless to say, but it's so important to practice the basics, like knife skills, how to cook eggs, how to brown meat, the perfect potato chip..you get the drift! After all, it would be such a shame to have the simplest of things fail you during a pressure crunch.
Have we got your attention and your tastebuds? The Chefs’ Line premieres Monday 6 August, 6pm weeknights, on SBS followed by an encore screening at 9.30pm on SBS Food Network. Episodes will be available after broadcast via . Join the conversation #TheChefsLine on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . Check out for episode guides, cuisine lowdowns, recipes and more!
Practice makes perfect! You don't want to get tripped up by stuffing up the basics, do you? Source: Hong Yi
Who's who and what's what
Meet the palates on The Chefs' Line
