Picture of the Day: Cranberry Sauce

Fresh cranberries ready to be turned into sauce...

Around this time I would be flying home to help my family prepare for Christmas by putting up the (plastic) tree and decorating it, wrapping presents, helping marinate and roast the turkey, and cooking the gravy and cranberry sauce (separately).

But that's not happening this year -- at least me being over there thanks to the raging pandemic.

The cranberries begin to "pop" from the heat

However, I have a thing for cranberries and saw a box of fresh cranberries for sale at Marks & Spencer and decided to try to make cranberry sauce to put on things like toast and yogurt.

After consulting my mom, I rinsed the cranberries and waited for them to "pop" from the heat and then add a bit of Chinese wine and some honey, as she warned me the cranberries are very sour. Ooh! She was right! I resorted to adding white sugar as well.

Not too long afterwards and lots of honey later, I had produced semi-sweet cranberry sauce!

I posted this on Instagram and a friend here who is renowned for his jam-making skills wondered if I was going to make jam.

Et voila! Here is my cranberry sauce ready to go

In response I said I would learn from him, the "jam master", but he deferred to the pastry chef at the Four Seasons Hong Kong as THE jam maker.

Maybe I'll get a lesson soon on how to make jam! Perhaps this will be my new thing to do during a pandemic?!

Quarantine Experience Revealed

One of the nicer rooms in a public housing flat in Fo Tan

Today was our first day back in the office for many of us, and it was strange to be suddenly back in the place we escaped from almost two months ago when there was a positive coronavirus case.

Everything was just as we had left it, as if we had been away for a long holiday and were now back.

Just before our office was shut down in mid-March, we had been wearing masks all day in the office, and now that rule was definitely in force, though many could not stand to wear literally all day (can you guess who?).

Here was the bathroom situation in the room

Colleagues who were "close contacts" of the infected person told us about their experiences of being in government quarantine. While the conditions didn't even make the three-star hotel grade, two of them said repeatedly the people who were looking after them, young volunteers, were so nice and helpful.

If my colleagues needed water, or more food, or something was wrong with their room, these volunteers working in shifts would respond relatively quickly on Whatsapp and give them what they needed.

One had a bed with literally a wooden mattress; she showed us a video of her knocking her hand on the mattress and it was rock hard. Thankfully our office administrator sent my colleague a soft mattress to put on top so she could actually have a relatively decent sleep.

They both said the cleanliness of the rooms was questionable, so the first thing they did upon entering the room was to wipe it down completely before even putting their bag down...

Friends and family could deliver things to the entrance of the quarantine centre, but they could not give them any cooked food, as the rooms had no refrigerator, and also they there was no way to treat you if you got sick.

Three meals a day kind of looked like this

One colleague's parents brought her lots of snacks to keep her occupied, and she even had time to prepare and had a bottle of chilli sauce to make her meals more palatable.

Another had a nice-looking room and even got to go outdoors periodically, but the wifi was very spotty so she couldn't watch Netflix and ended up sleeping a lot to pass the time.

When their quarantine time was done, they were so grateful for everything when they came back into civilization. A mundane trip to the supermarket was so exciting and being able to cook their own food was a revelation.

The experience has made them wary of the possibility of encountering someone positive again. One of them has even prepared a bag of necessities just in case she needs to go into quarantine again!

Guess you can never be prepared enough for a pandemic...

Quarantine Hair and Cooking

A man wears a face shield and mask as he gets his hair cut in Hong Kong

The last time I got my hair cut was just before Chinese New Year in mid-January, and while I cut the bangs two weeks ago, my hair was so long I looked like a shaggy dog.

I tried to schedule an appointment with my hairdresser earlier this week, but she was either off on one day and busy the other. Finally I got to see her today.

She reported being very busy in the past week, with people having their locks groomed before going back to the office next week, following civil servants.

Quarantine cooking: Brussels sprouts and ham with rice

"It's been a lot of work for me cutting hair these days because everyone's hair is so long!" she exclaimed, after washing my long hair.

One of her male client's hair was almost an inch longer than usual, half covering his ear. She seemed to think it was admirable he was able to stand having it that long for a long time.

Chop, chop, chop went the scissors to my hair and lots of it fell to the ground. Instantly my head felt lighter, but she wasn't finished and kept snipping bits of here and there.

She asked what it was like working from home. "Did your cooking improve?" she asked.

I told her it was hard to cook three times a day, though I may have improved slightly; it was more about filling my body with the necessary energy than taste -- I leave that to professional chefs to sate my taste buds.

Stir-fried potato and tomato with parmesan cheese

My hairdresser talked about the miracles of air fryers and how you can have delicious fried chicken and fries. I added popcorn could be made in there too. I asked how big the contraption was and she replied it was quite big. "You could fry a whole pigeon in there," she said.

Then it would take up too much room, I observed. Would you really use it everyday?

As she continued cutting my hair, she asked: "Your hair looks darker. Did you do something to it?"

I looked at her puzzled. "No... I haven't," I replied. I thought for a moment.

"I haven't been swimming," I said.

"Ah, swimming!" she remarked. "I don't know how to swim, even though I love being at the beach."

I hardly noticed the darker shade of my hair, and that the chlorine had lightened my hair that much, because I went swimming at least once a week. I just thought that was what my hair looked like.

The food hall at Marks and Spencer in Central

Perhaps this is a sign of my hair being the healthiest it's been in a long while.

Afterwards I headed to Marks & Spencer to take a look at the food section. It was quite busy with customers but I was surprised to see a lot of yellow stickers on products announcing discounts. Why so many? Lots of fresh vegetables were reduced, along with packaged meals (particularly the Indian ones and pasta). What was that all about?

Had the store ordered too much stock and now it couldn't get rid of it fast enough?

A bonanza for customers, though again with people going back to work next week, will everyone continue to cook or depend on professional chefs to feed them?

What is HK's New "Normal"?

How much longer will social distancing continue in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong reported a third consecutive day of no new coronavirus cases, its total number continues to be 1,037. The government is looking at the majority of civil servants coming back to work next week, while libraries and museums will reopen, along with outdoor venues like sports grounds.

While restaurant and shop owners must be breathing a sigh of relief in the hopes that business will return back to "normal", will Hongkongers really go out in droves to shop and dine out?

Will diners expect distances to be kept in restaurants?

Some say they are itching to go out, while others couldn't care less, partly because of their own perilous financial situation, or have been so spooked by the pandemic that they have lost all interest in stepping out.

It will be interesting to see how Hongkongers react next week, particularly after May 7, when government restrictions on social distancing measures are supposedly lifted. But will restaurant patrons prefer to have tables maintain their 1.5 metres apart to give them more confidence? That could impact restaurateurs' bottom line, but this practice might have to continue to have customers return.

Or perhaps diners would rather continue to eat at home, but order more takeout from their favourite restaurants, or meal kits to assemble themselves, or cook from scratch as it's more healthier. It will be interesting to see which of these options will become more popular with time.

After May 7, will people return to shopping malls to shop?

One thing's for sure -- people are still willing to queue for something they really want. A gourmet cookie enterprise called Cookie Dpt has done very savvy marketing. It doesn't have a physical store, but a kiosk on the third floor of the Landmark shopping mall in Central.

If you follow them on Instagram, they release certain flavours on certain days. Of course the pictures of gooey cookies makes everyone's mouth water.

I was in Central today for a work assignment and in the late afternoon I headed over there to see if I could get my hands on today's special flavours -- Nutella hazelnut chocolate chip, and salted caramel.

But at 4.50pm everything was sold out. "Wait! We have more cookies coming at 5pm!" said a guy manning the booth.

I came back five minutes later to see a group of women hovering around the kiosk. I told them the guy would be back and he was, though he said it would be another 15 minutes, and could we stand in a line?

A selection of Cookie Dpt's cookies that are indulgent treats

It was only later did I find out both of those special flavours would not be in this new shipment coming from their kitchen in Wong Chuk Hang, but since I was third in line, I didn't want to give up my spot. Every few minutes I would look behind me and see more people joining the queue. Quite impressive.

Finally at around 5.30pm he got the call to come down and pick up the cookies. Ten minutes later he came back with three big boxes, but as one person collecting cash and filling orders, he asked everyone to be patient and no one heckled him.

I've tried the cookies before, and they are calorific, but delicious. They are a bit expensive at HK$40 a cookie, but it's a sinful treat you can't find anywhere else. It's like the "lipstick effect" -- even in an economic downturn, people are looking for a relatively cheap indulgence. 

While I only bought three cookies, if each person buys a box of six, it's possible they ran out quite quickly and there were over a dozen people behind me in line...

Reflections on Self-Isolation

 

Lovely view of Victoria Harbour at sunset n Easter Sunday

I have been working from home for almost a month and the unusual conditions have been challenging, as I'm sure it is for everyone around the world.

While I don't mind being by myself, living and working in physical isolation takes a mental toll. Thankfully technology has made it very easy for me to be connected with colleagues, family and friends, and sometimes there are the most hilarious things on social media that made you laugh out loud.

Was she swallowed by a fish?

Yesterday I saw a tweet from someone who have completed a massive crochet project of a mermaid's tail for their daughter. It looked very impressive.

Then the next picture showed her daughter wearing the tail... which covered her up completely like a sleeping bag! It was too funny.

The other day I posted a picture of my latest completed colouring project. A few years ago my parents and I went on a trip to France with family friends and my cousin, and one of the stops was the impressionist painter Claude Monet's home in Giverny.

I hope to visit that magical garden again, and as a souvenir I bought a colouring book there and ever since then have periodically finished pictures in there.

Every time I post a completed one on Facebook, I get a lot of likes, and this time I realized it gave people joy and it has spurred me to complete another one very soon.

Cooking three meals a day has been a challenge for sure. I have no idea how much food to buy for the week prepare everyday. But I am getting better at making rice in a pot, though the rice is mushier than it should be. At least it's cooked through...

My latest colouring project of Monet's home and garden

YouTube has been a great resource, with videos on how to cook just about anything. I learned how to cook Japanese curry and just made a vegetarian one featuring meaty mushrooms, eggplant, carrots, potatoes and onions.

But soups are still my favourite go-to meals and made a batch of vegetable soup that goes well with sourdough bread bought from a bakery.

Exercise is so important to stay sane these days. I used to go to the gym three times a week, but that ended almost a month ago when there were positive cases reported there. Instead almost every evening I head out after dinner and walk along the waterfront, over 6K to Shun Tak Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wan and back.

For some reason this walk does not seem far for me, maybe because at each section of the path there are different things to see; I like to count the number of dogs I see people walking, and it averages around 16 or so. If you walk around sunset there's double the number.

I walk to not only get the heart pumping and sweat a bit, but also try to get my mind off what's going on. Last night I didn't wear an extra layer, just a T-shirt and my windbreaker so I had to jog to keep warm, which in the end turned out to be a good thing! My app tracking my distances show last month I walked or jogged an astonishing 120K, and I will try hard to make or beat that number this month.

Homemade vegetarian chilli with slightly mushy rice...

My prized purchase this weekend was a yoga mat so I can now do a few poses to stretch out and hopefully sleep a bit better; even though I am exercising, it is not enough to exhaust my mind and wake up periodically during the night, or wake up earlier than my alarm.

Nevertheless, with Hong Kong recording only five new coronavirus cases today, my colleague hinted there was a possibility we could return to work next week. I don't know if I am mentally prepared for that, but at the same time we are all dying for social interaction again.

In the meantime living in self-isolation has been a crazy experiment we are all experiencing, though every morning I wake up, take a deep breath, and am grateful to be alive and well.

Turkey Time

The roasted 20lb turkey after over four hours in the oven!

This year I had the task of roasting a 20lb turkey. Usually we wet brine it, a trick I had learned from a chef over 10 years ago while working on a radio show. He said it was the best way to ensure the turkey was moist after roasting in the oven for several hours.

Almost an hour into roasting the turkey

But in recent years dry brine is the way to go and in our case it was a necessity, as the massive bird barely fit into our giant stock pot.

I looked up a few dry brine recipes online and they all basically said the same thing -- use kosher salt, pepper and add a few herbs like rosemary, thyme, orange or lemon zest and be sure to season the cavity too.

For our 20lb turkey, I used five tablespoons of kosher salt, liberal amounts of ground pepper, about half a tablespoon of brown sugar to help the skin turn golden brown, as well as fresh rosemary, thyme and some dry oregano.

We added a bit of oil to the mixture, but it wasn't really necessary -- it helps get some of the moisture out of the turkey, which means more turkey flavour.

After over two hours in the oven it is browning nicely

After 24 hours we put the massive bird into the oven at 375 degrees and checked it every hour. The legs started to turn brown first and then we turned it down again to 350 degrees and kept checking on it.

At around the 3-hour mark we had to flip the turkey around to breast side up, which was a two-person operation, one actually doing the heavy lifting, the other scooting it into place in the roasting container. Phew!

Over four hours later the bird was done and we let it rest for almost an hour. The end result? Very moist, though the skin wasn't particularly crispy. But we were glad it was completely cooked through.

We flipped the turkey with the breast side up, almost done

Meanwhile the cranberry sauce was made from fresh cranberries, very liberal spoonfuls of brown sugar, the last few drops of Tia Maria and a good dash of white Zinfandel, which resulted in a complex flavour! Delicious! Perfect accompaniment to plain yoghurt...

Gravy was also made in advance with carrots and celery and the turkey neck.

So it's a wrap! Hope we remember the turkey recipe for next year...! In the meantime we'll be having lots of turkey leftovers, congee and soup for the next week...

London: Ottolenghi's Strong Flavours

The tempting baked goods dispayed at Ottolenghi's restaurant in Spitalfields

Yotam Ottolenghi is a well known Israeli-English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He also hosts podcasts where he cooks for a friend at home and they talk about... "simple pleasures". I listened to him on the flight back to Hong Kong, which helped me fall asleep.

He has six restaurants and delis in London and is the author of seven cookbooks. The recipes that I have tried in his book Plenty are not too difficult and delicious.

Cumin roasted cauliflower with tumeric yogurt and cherries

We went to try his restaurant in Spitalfields which has a bakery attached to it, featuring a cornucopia of sweet treats, like massive raspberry and chocolate meringues, cookies, peanut butter s'mores, chocolate tarts, tangerine and pistachio cakes, carrot and walnut cake, and so on.

I wish we had come here during the day to sample these baked goods, as the dishes in the restaurant for dinner left more to be desired. It's packed and noisy for a Friday night and we got an online reservation at 8.30pm, though we were able to sit down earlier.

Our table is by the window so we can see people walking by from tourists to locals. The room is not well lit and each table has a live candle that melts away and a new one is added on top of the pile of wax accumulated at the bottom.

The prices on the menu range from £9.80 to £19.50 (US$12-US$24) and our server tells us for two people we should be choosing five to seven dishes; we chose to be conservative. It's a good thing we did as we struggled to finish what was in front of us.

Roasted beetroot, grilled nectarines, and whipped feta

When the dishes arrived, almost all of them were surprisingly cold, including things like the onion squash, cumin-roasted cauliflower, and roasted beetroot with grilled nectarines that one would think would be at least warm.

Another shocker was how strong the flavours were, to the point of extreme tartness. I actually like eating sour foods like pickles, but this was too sharp to the point where we made squinty faces, and it revealed how the ingredients weren't properly mixed together or too much lemon or lime juice was used.

A dish we tried featured prawns that were covered in tiny bits of coconut and flavoured with lemongrass that overpowered the delicate sweetness of the prawns (or was it because they were frozen)?, while the roasted squash were marred by bits of licorice that left a horrible taste in my mouth.

Stir-fried king prawns, oyster mushrooms and coconut

After dinner we went to the bakery next door to take a look and were shocked to see several of the same dishes we tried available for take-out. So what is the point of eating at Ottolenghi then at those prices? It was disappointing to say the least.

One of our main dishes was good, chargrilled Chalkstream trout with masala and mango chutney. The trout was cooked perfectly and while we were warned there might be bones, we didn't encounter any. The mango chutney on the other hand, was another tart experience.

The combination of roasted beets with grilled nectarines was interesting, along with roasted cauliflower with cherries, but they weren't enough to keep us sated.

The one saving grace was the dessert, a new item on the menu: moist chocolate cake with Bailey's cream. It was indeed moist and not too sweet.

Moist chocolate cake with Bailey's cream

So while I will still like flipping through Ottolenghi's cookbooks for inspiration and the fact that he makes vegetables the main ingredient of a dish, dining at his restaurant was not quite what I had expected...

Ottolenghi Spitalfields
50 Artillery Lane
London
+44 20 7247 1999
ottolenghi.co.uk

Obsessed with "Xiangchun Freedom"

If you can afford to eat this vegetable, it's as expensive as a lobster

What can you eat to show your peers you've made it financially?

In China it was cherries, but now it's a vegetable called xiangchun 香椿, the young red leaves of the Chinese mahogany tree that are the in thing to munch on. The basil-tasting leaves have become so prized that in places like Beijing it costs 80 yuan to 100 yuan (US$12 to US$30) for a catty or 500 grams.

People have taken to social media to complain about the price of the vegetable that could cost as much as a lobster, 10 abalone or 39 crayfish.

Xiangchun leaves are from the Chinese mahogany tree

"You can buy this [vegetable] to show off your wealth," one person on Weibo commented.

Another said: "There's plenty of xiangchun trees at my grandmother's house. I feel like I've just found the path to riches."

The first spring leaves of the tree are traditionally used in Chinese cooking, especially in the north, where it is stirfried with eggs or tofu, or used as filling for dumplings.

Xiangchun per catty costs more than pork in Beijing, where it is priced at 8 yuan to 10 yuan. In places like Qingdao in Shandong province, Xiaogan in Hubei province and Xian in Shaanxi province, the vegetable costs 40 yuan per 500 grams.

However, if you can afford to buy and eat xiangchun, then you are considered to have "xiangchun freedom", similar to people who can afford to buy imported cherries to give as gifts. Before the Spring Festival this year, imported cherries were selling for 60 yuan per catty in Beijing.

Economist Yao Zhiyong is with the School of Management at Fudan University and says the wide use of the terms "xiangchun freedom" and "cherry freedom" showed a decline in real spending power.

Xiangchun are stirfried with egg or tofu, or in dumplings

"Many items have become more expensive, but people's salaries haven't gone up accordingly," Yao says. "In the meantime there are other expenses -- education, housing, healthcare -- that can't be ignored. That's why people are bemoaning their lack of 'cherry freedom' or 'xiangchun freedom'."

The Chinese have this cruel obsession of constantly comparing themselves to other people, either to psychologically feel like they have a leg up on their peers or to bemoan the reality that they are never going to win the rat race.

It's as if this competition is the only way they know how to relate to others which is unhealthy and scary. But the ironic thing is that people are willing to pay top dollar for a seasonal vegetable, and I'm all for a greener lifestyle!

Chicken Broth from Scratch

Just before turning the heat on, the local chicken is nestled with vegetables

These days I'm cooking more; even though our office is in Causeway Bay where there is a plethora of dining options, they aren't easy on the wallet, nor are they satisfying.

In the past year I have resorted to cooking my own lunches, usually large batches of soups that I scoop into boxes and put in the freezer before re-heating one in the morning and putting the hot soup in a thermos that will keep it warm for lunchtime. Then I splurge on bread at Eric Kayser to accompany my lunch.

Earlier this week I was given a local chicken from Tai On farm in the New Territories, and since my toaster oven is too small to roast it, I decided to make chicken broth from it last night.

Through research online I discovered chicken broth is different from stock -- the former is making a soup with the meat and bones, while the latter is only the bones; I thought the two words were interchangeable!

In any event I placed the chicken (minus the head and organs) into the large wok I have, together with onions, leeks, garlic, celery, carrots, bay leaves, black peppercorns and salt. I did add a sprig of coriander that turned the broth slightly green. Also forget using dried oregano -- stick to fresh parsley, and fill the pot up with water and turn on the heat.

I should have chopped up the chicken, and ended up having to cut the feet off as the broth was already steaming hot... not smart, but oh well. The broth simmered for about an hour and a half, when the meat was falling off the bone. I took the chicken out of the pot and let the broth simmer a bit longer.

The chicken meat was delicious -- what I tried without devouring the whole thing. It had a chicken taste that's not found in North American birds. It's also much smaller in size too.

After the broth was taken off the heat and cooled down, I first poured the broth into a colander and then a fine sieve strainer that didn't let oil molecules through -- there was a lot of oil. Then the broth went into the refrigerator overnight as well as the chicken meat that I pulled off the carcass and placed in another container in the fridge.

This morning I made chicken vegetable soup with onions, garlic, leeks, carrots and celery, barley and corn. When I put the broth in, it was gelatinous from the carcass, bones and skin. Amazing! When it was heated up again it became a broth again. I managed to make four servings' worth of soup and included some of the chicken meat too.

Lunch this week is going to be delish!

Hotpot Controversy

Chua Lam has said hotpot has no culinary significance in Chinese culture

Chua Lam (pronounced choi lam) was a film producer for Shaw Brothers Studio turned food critic turned restaurateur who has gotten into some hot water recently.

A highly respected food columnist, he has written a lot about food, and even taken his fans on foodie tours around Asia. He even wrote in his column that to ensure his groups had the best food, he would taste test several restaurants per day.

Chua opened a Vietnamese pho eatery last year

Last year he put his money where his mouth is and opened a Vietnamese noodle shop called Chua Lam's Pho on Wellington Street in Hong Kong's Central district. I have yet to go but hear the soup base is excellent. No doubt there are lines out the door.

However, the other day he was interviewed on a mainland Chinese talk show called Day Day Up.

The host asked him if there was any Chinese dish Chua would want to get rid of, and he replied hotpot.

"Because hotpot is a cooking method totally lacking in cultural significance. You just throw some ingredients into a pot. I don't get what's so delicious about it," he said. "If hotpot fandom continues to grow, you'll see fewer and fewer chefs in the years to come."

His comments immediately ignited indignation online, with many professing their love of hotpot and questioning why it should be removed.

While hotpot is a popular way for friends to get together over a meal and talk why they cook their food, from a culinary standpoint, there is no skill involved, nor is it about having the best ingredients as they will all be cooked in the same pot and can easily be overcooked if you're not watching.

There's a variety of ingredients to cook in the hotpot

What Chua says is true, that if there are more hotpot restaurants, that eliminates the need of hiring chefs and so culinary standards drop.

I enjoy the odd hotpot, but not very often. I like the socializing aspect of it and it makes a meal more drawn out than if you ordered dishes in another restaurant. However it is your cooking skills that are put to the test, especially when poaching shrimp and fish for example, as well as cuts of beef and lamb.

Other ingredients like mushrooms, tofu and corn can be left simmering for a long time.

In the end there's a lot of scum at the top of the "broth", and it can be very oily from the meats cooking in there. My other concern about eating hotpot is that you can easily order too much food and feel compelled to finish it all, and have to waddle home afterwards, feeling very uncomfortable trying to digest all that food.

Mainland Chinese hotpot complete with hot charcoal

Thank goodness places like Haidilao offer half portions (and a noodle dance!), but that's not really the issue...

While people criticizing Chua claim there is cultural significance in hotpots, can someone explain?

Just seems like good business sense to just prepare ingredients and have customers cook their own food...

Cooking Up an Unappetizing Show

Sexist: Three male hosts watch three women cook

Last night I was reminded by how bad -- no atrocious -- the programs are on TVB when I watched an episode of Cooking Beauties.

Three male hosts and a guest judge observe three female celebrities prepare the same dishes for them to sample and decide who is the winner.

Cantopop singer Joey Wong has trouble handling a live fish

The women wear sleeveless tops so they have to wear "sleeves" that go up to their elbows in case they get their arms dirty or splattered with hot oil. And the dishes they are making aren't easy -- presumably there's someone behind the scenes instructing them on what to do.

However, not all the female contestants know how to cook -- some of them have very bad knife skills and they almost chop off their fingers, or they have no idea how to cut up meat, let alone fish.

Back in June when the show started, the Communications Authority received over 800 complaints from viewers about how the three contestants handled a tiger grouper.

In order to kill them, one fish was thrown into hot water, another thrown on the floor. This is meant to elicit laughs from the audience, but many viewers at home were not amused.

A statement from Happy Animal Lab and Hong Kong Veg Society condemned the "unnecessary pain to animals". It also criticized the amount of food wasted, as many of the dishes were inedible (again for laughs) and had to be thrown out.

The contestants wear "sleeves" and the men watch them cook

"When fish and crustacean are thrown on the floor or a heating saucepan alive, as they cannot make any sound, the audience would not realize their pain. Because of their silence, the audience ignore their suffering. Their silence also results in their sacrifice in a farce," the statement read.

"If the animals are replaced by a pig, a chicken or a cow, will the audience still find this interesting?"

All good points.

But my main beef is that the show is sexist -- why is it that the women have to cook for the men who will judge them? And why just expose these women's short-comings when it comes to their culinary skills? Why not make both men and women compete? And have the judging panel include both men and women?

Some of the female competitors were so bad in executing their dishes that some of the judges gave them negative points, again for laughs. How is that amusing?

These "interns" wear form-fitting chef jackets and short skirts

Another part of the show are about a dozen "interns" dressed in form-fitting chef jackets and short skirts. Sometimes they are called on to compete against each other in a 10-minute cooking test. Real female chefs don't wear short skirts and aim to look pretty in the kitchen. They are there to do their job and do it well.

Cooking Beauties is a horrific show on so many levels. The fact that it still isn't cancelled just shows how tone deaf TVB executives are and it send the wrong message about women, men, and cooking.

Actor Nicholas Tse who has a cooking show and is a judge is looking more credible even though he isn't a bona fide chef either...