Cookyn with Victoria (and Mervyn)

Earlier I mentioned I had a birthday celebration on the actual weekend of my birthday.  I also had a more wholesome gathering a few weeks later at Mervyn &Amanda's kitchen at Cookyn with Mervyn.  We had a cook-off challenge amongst the 20 attendees.

My birthday March 14th is otherwise known as Pi Day (3.14), so going along with that and my basic love of all sorts of pies, the theme was PIE.  Mervyn & Amanda were two of the three judges.  Giving us a list of limited ingredients, we only had 1.5 hours to make a 3-course menu.  We were judged on:

- Presentation
- Timing
- Teamwork
- Cleanliness
- Taste
- Rules (used all of the ingredients at some point and one dish had to be some sort of pie)

Sad to say, I was on the losing team (we won in the 'taste' category though!).  I couldn't pull the, "But it's my birthday" string.  Admittedly, the winning team did have a fantastic finish with much better presentation... though I personally give them 0 points for sportsmanship.  Boy, did they rub it in our faces.

CLICK "Read More" to see the other photos below!
(photos from myself, Jason Iafolla, Hale Cho, Amanda Phan, Regina Tan)

Ms. Lauryn taking out her scrumptious cheese sticks from the oven.

Blue Team, we're probably laughing how we messed up the dough.

Blue Team's dessert: Strawberry Parfait with a caramel crunch

Red Team sweat hard for their win, but somehow still look ravishing.

Blue Team preps their luscious chicken pot pie for the oven.

Red Team's quiche is starting to puff up.  It smells good.  Uh-oh.

Posing with the temporary enemies.

Blue team at the stoves.

It was a mistake to lump all the bachelors on one team, but they each proved to have their unique abilities that would come in handy later on.

JQ stirring up his famous pesto pasta. A secret recipe learned in Firenze back in 2002.

The secret to Red Team's success: preloading with lots of wine.

Regina and I do love our cheese.

Blue Team

Red Team

Crap, Red Team also made Strawberry parfait.  Ours is surely more delicious.

Red Team's quiche.. with pesto brushed under.  Fancy.

Thanks everyone who came and made it an awesome birthday.  You're all mini Iron Chefs in the making.

Thanks to Amanda and Mervyn too!  Visit http://www.cookyn-with-mervyn.com/ for more information about their private parties or regular cooking classes.  Mervyn is a wonderful, engaging instructor who makes sure everyone gets to get involved.  He is also Appetite's Editor's Pick for Appetite Magazine's June cooking class.  Sign up here if you're interested in attending the 4 June class!