Where Did The Time Go?

Ooops!

How can six months go by so quickly? How is it possible that we have been so busy that we haven’t had time for a single blog post?

We had a fantastic spring season that culminated with the last class of the season – A Master Chef inspired competition. 17 excited students/competitors showed up not knowing what was going to happen and were welcomed not only by us, but also by Stacey’s visiting parents and Mike Signorelli from Signature Wines who kindly had agreed to hold a mini wine tasting all the while also acting as a guest judge and furthermore presenting Signature Wines, a wine club that offers monthly subscriptions of wines exclusive to members.

The contestants were a little bit shell shocked as we divided them into teams, each team responsible for a different part of a full meal - nibbles, appetizers, mains and desserts. Extra points were given for creating a cocktail to go with.

Each team visited Mike to taste the wines he had brought to pair with the ingredients that had to be included when creating the dish; blue cheese for nibbles, lemongrass for appetizers, kale for main and chili for dessert.

After a short period of planning the teams went to work and amazed us with their creativity and fearlessness in the kitchen. Not only was time limited to one hour but the space to work on and appliances used had to be shared. Our extensive collection of recipes were at hand for reference but they were not allowed to follow them, only use them for inspirations.

We were astounded by the results. Not only were the required ingredients used, the dishes, with no exceptions, tasted great and were also beautiful to the eye. And we were also impressed at the thought that went behind their creations and with which wine they wanted to pair it with.

Irresistible Nibbles

Stupendous Starters

Fabulous Mains

Decadent Desserts

We ended the class with a short quiz before it was time for prizes and surprise, surprise – everyone was a winner and walked away with a limited edition STARA t-shirt!

The competition was a great success and a fantastic way to end the season.

We are so very lucky. We are thankful for the amazing people we have met who keep coming back to our classes, every single week.

• We are thankful for each other. Not only do we see each other almost every day and work together, we have remained the best of friends throughout this journey and could never ever do it without each other.
• We are grateful to our families who supports us and bares with us when we need to try out new recipes or, as in Stacey’s case, lets us use the kitchen (and guest room for pantry).
• We could not do this without Xiu who helps us out in the kitchen and takes care of the laundry and dishes without ever complaining.
• We adore working with the lovely Clicia of Clicia’s Design and Shayne’s Treasures who not only lets us invade her tiny kitchen space now and then but supports us whole heartedly.

We also want to give a shout out to the wonderful Kristoffer Liu who takes care of our hair and also made us absolutely glamorous when we went to the Great Wall Ball.

Summer for the STARA team will be spent in Sri Lanka, Sweden, Arizona and California where we hope to soak up some sun and inspiration for next season.

See you again in September! Keep cooking!!