Cameras and Cucumbers

Well, I think I have just enjoyed the best morning ever! I was invited as a local blogger to the launch of the new Braun Multiquick 7 hand blender with Braun ambassador chef, Chef Osama at the Park Hyatt.  I had been generously given a hand blender  a month ago to test out and use in my own kitchen so was familiar with the product but we had no idea what they had prepared for us….

The Braun  Multiquick is available in shops now and is unique in that it is very sleek and cordless. This is so convenient as you don’t have to keep moving your food to the nearest power point! What I also like about it is that it is black and silver. It would look quite the  accessory in any modern kitchen. I know i will be using mine all the time.

Five food bloggers were invited, and on arrival we were told that there would be a cook off! It was like Masterchef!! ( Dilaila you would have been in heaven!) we were allowed to familiarize ourselves with our kitchen stations, the fresh vegetables available to us and our utensils( of which I have to say, there weren’t many! It just goes to show that professional chefs don’t need all the little gadgets we all fill our kitchens with!)

As you can imagine we were all a little nervous, we were told that we had one hour and would be marked on the food, the cleanliness of our stations and how we utilised the Braun hand blender. We donned our Braun aprons and got stuck in! I cannot tell you how quickly that hour passed! All the chefs from Traiteur were on hand, fetching random ingredients, advising on taste, washing up, creating ornamental garnishes, you name it those gorgeous chefs were doing it to help us out! Even Chef Osama gave little culinary tips to help us along.

After an hour and 15 mins ( Chef Osama was very generous with his timings!) we had several, very different completed dishes on the judging table. A few people had managed to make two dishes! There was coconut curry, tomato soup, grilled salmon with cauliflower puree, fish cakes, grilled chicken and guacamole bruschettas, all sorts! It was so much fun! I made salmon fish cakes with a soya mayonnaise and a mooli radish and carrot and sesame salad. The judges took a while to decide  and apparently it was all very close! And congratulations to Shaima for winning the first prize which was a night at the Park Hyatt.

We were then given goodie bags of delicious italian olive oil and balsamic vinegar and other such delights as well as a voucher for dinner for two at the Park Hyatt and a signed copy of Chef Osama’s Arabic sweets cook book! (of which we have all promised to make at least one dish.. watch this space) And then we were taken upstairs to Arabesque to enjoy a delicious lunch together! Amazing!!

Everything was so well-organized, I know alot of hard work had gone into this event so a huge thank you to Tejal, Heba and Omar from Braun, to Chef Osama, to the Park Hyatt and all the lovely chefs at Traiteur and to Rana from Porter Novelli who invited me to get involved in this event. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute!

the bloggers:

Nausheen Noor, author of DubaiBites blog, Sukaina Rajabali, author of LickMySpoon blog, Arva Ahmad, author for ILiveinaFryingPan blog, Shaima Al Tamimi, author of Lgeimat junkies blog and myself.