Eesti
The EBS kitchen race really gives a new meaning to having progressive dinners. Among many of the many events planned and organized by the EBS international club, the kitchen race was an extremely delightful and successful event. Progressive dinners may not be something that is ordinary in everyone’s weekly schedule however the EBS international club managed to create this exciting event allowing fellow international students and local students to gather around for good food, good wine and excellent company.
So how does the kitchen race work? First of all, let me make it clear that despite having the word race within its title, it in fact wasn’t a race at all! There were 2 teams of 3 groups, each serving a course at their own homes. The groups were strategically organized by the EBS international club councilors and the night was organized seamlessly between the groups. The objective is to cook your chosen course and have everyone else in the group visit your home. Everyone then moves on from home to home according to the course.
My group, consisting of my two lovely housemates, Maddy and Geraldine, chose to serve up starters. We decided to delight our guest’s taste buds with something quintessentially Australian. The dish is called Sausage Rolls and is typically eaten with tomato ketchup. We decided to make one traditional version and a chicken version for variety and even a vegetarian option to be sure.
However on the day of the kitchen race, 6 hours before we were anticipated to have guests over, we were told that one of our guests was lactose, fructose and gluten intolerant. To our shock, none of the sausage rolls would be suitable for her, our guest couldn’t even have tomato ketchup!
Panic set in and we started to brainstorm foods that would be suitable for our guest. We decided that basically, the only thing she can have was water! After some lengthy brainstorming and Google searches we finally came up with a dish. Smoked salmon with diced potatoes on a rice cracker.
1 hour to go and we are frantically rolling our sausage rolls, cleaning the kitchen, setting up the table and getting ourselves looking presentable and making sure all traces of flour was wiped cleaned from our hands and faces.
A last minute attempt to keep our guest even more happy, Maddy, our cocktail expert, quickly whipped up a very pink cocktail with mixtures of watermelon vodka and some juice. And it was delicious! We felt like we did a good job overall, catering for all dietary requirements and keeping the guest happy with a very strong cocktail.
After the first course, we moved on to team 2 for main course. There we had wine and were served goats cheese stuffed chicken with rice and vegetables. Following that we travelled to our last and final course where we were treated to a blueberry topped baked cheesecake accompanied with more wine.
The night was extremely successful and everyone was stuffed to the max (or at least I certainly was! Having to unbutton my jeans right at the very end!) Everyone was very hospitable and it was a great way of meeting and making new friends. Maddy enjoyed everyone’s hospitable nature and enjoyed being in a home environment. Geraldine appreciated being able to meet new people and getting to know what they’ve been up to since being in Tallinn. I was especially delightful impressed at the level of cooking skills presented by all teams! Especially from team main course as the two boys who were cooking were both shy of turning 21 years old and were extremely talented cooks. They will definitely make their future partners very happy one day!
Many thanks to the EBS international student council for organizing and making this event happen! It was extremely fun and I even wish that the event could perhaps become a monthly event. What better way than to make friends over amazing food and wine, amazing company and interesting conversations!
Author: Chervil Tan
Photos: Chervil Tan
Translator: Kerdo Riko Pohl
