However, there are some flaws in this very much publicized cooking challenge. Firstly, there is no blind tasting. Tasters knew which dish belonged to Ramsay and which belonged to local hawkers. So if you are a die hard Ramsay fan/loyal patriotic nut like myself, then we all know which side you are inclined to. Read The Straits Times today and you will know it (Girl voted for Ramsay even though his chili crab tasted sourish). Next, only 1000 lucky people get to taste and to do that, you have to queue. We all know that Singaporeans love to queue right? We have a "queuing" culture. Kitties with no mouth, N95 masks, now food from a celebrity chef. Bear in mind that most of the people who queued to sample the food this time around are youngsters between age 20 to 30 plus who do not mind queuing one day earlier, not those aunties and uncles that you see in coffee shops (this group prefers to spend time sleeping instead of queuing overnight), who are more experienced eaters of hawker food. So, this sample size is skewed towards a particular age group. Thus the whole affair is kind of biased, in my opinion.
Although this competition is not fair in all ways, it still deserves a mention because it suggests that local hawker food can be on par with fanciful restaurant food and free publicity for the little red dot again. Do you know that people once thought Singapore is in China? Laugh your heads off. Plus, Ramsay merely spent a day each to learn to cook these dishes from the respective hawkers. This is really no easy feat and that earned my admiration for him. I hope Ramsay will be back in Singapore again next time after he has mastered these dishes, since he has the recipes! Come back next time and it will be a blind tasting session. No favouritism votes then. Purely vote based on your taste buds.
Credits: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/gordon-ramsay-wins-chilli-crab-loses-his-laksa-and-chicken-rice-201307
Nice one
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