Master Chef

Recently, my husband found this intriguing show on Hulu called Master Chef.  It's one of those reality-tv shows, but what's fun for us is that it's home cooks - people like us, basically - who are competing to be declared the Master Chef by the three judges, 3 formidable giants in the culinary world (Gordon Ramsay one of them, who I think is hysterical to watch).  The contestants come from all walks of life and are self-taught cooks, but they all have a passion to succeed in the restaurant business.  Since my husband and I love cooking and have fun with it, we enjoy the show.

The contestants have to battle it out through a series of challenges, which got me thinking.  I have a suggestion for a challenge:  shabbat meals.

Somehow, I developed a reputation (among a very small group of individuals, like maybe, 3) that I can whip up shabbat meals in about 2 hours.  On a Friday afternoon.  After I come home from work and the grocery store.  If you're unfamiliar with shabbat meals, the most common description is that it's like preparing Thanksgiving dinner.  And that's not really too far from the truth.  There are usually several courses and the attempt is made at preparing dishes that are special and different from what you'd serve during the week - all in honor of the holy day that is Shabbat.

There are books and blogs and articles all about how one can prepare for Shabbat ahead of time so that one does not feel disorganized as Shabbat approaches on Friday evening (this blog is dedicated to the entire notion of how to de-frazzle oneself).  They're all wonderful, and I try to implement them.  Preparing everything on Friday afternoon is not a sustainable solution, nor is it very nice to have a frazzled mommy who is running around preparing everything right up until the verylastsecond before candlelighting, when all preparation ceases.  <--oh, that's another important point here - one often prepares two meals, one for Friday night dinner, and one for Saturday lunch, due to the prohibition of cooking on Shabbat itself...

And yet, that is the situation I find myself in week after week (except for the frazzled mommy part.  I suppose I'm so used to my routine that I'm no longer frazzled but I do what I need to do and I just "git 'er done").

So here's my suggestion to the Master Chef show developers:  I challenge the home cooks to create two Thanksgiving-style meals in two hours - start to finish.  And I think I'm being generous by not throwing kids into the mix, because things always get more interesting when you're trying to entertain two little kiddos and get the chicken into the oven at the same time...