She took some two-inch length potatoes, eggs, cream cheese, fresh basil and parsley, olive oil, and garlic. Next, she boiled the potatoes and eggs together and made a light pesto with the rest of the ingredients. When the potatoes reached the softness desired, she strained and poured all of it into a bowl of cold water. She cut a centimeter on one end of each and scooped out a portion of the meat from the middle.

Exactly at this moment, everyone was busy preparing their dishes while the judges were roaming around. Suddenly, Liza spotted Beauty busy scooping out the potato meat. She went near, observed and finally asked to feed her curiosity.

"What are you making?"

"Side dish." Beauty just answered without a thought on who was asking because her mind was so focused on her work.

"Oh? And what will that be?"

"I thought of naming it Green Hair Wig Bald Potato side dish." She mashed the potato meat and mixed it with the rest of the ingredients.

The judge's mouth curved into a smile, "Oh? I'm intrigued. Good. Expecting to see your bald potato getting a green wig on my table later."

After hearing the phrase 'on my table later', she turned her head dumbfounded to see the actual person speaking.

"See you later." Liza left her with a big smile and imitated a shooting posture with her finger to her target girl.

Beauty panicked momentarily. Nonetheless, she told herself to finish what she was doing first. As time went by, everyone was so engrossed in finis.h.i.+ng their dishes or just putting finis.h.i.+ng touches when John reminded everyone and the countdown started.

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. All hands up."

The time was up. John spoke up and picked a bowl full of folded papers to draw lots on who would come first. To everyone's astonishment, Liza insisted that the first team to present would be Team #2.

Therefore, it was done according to Liza's wishes. The three judges were sitting around a circular table. Team #2's dishes were all placed together on the table, aside from the dessert. Luisa requested to serve it later.

The appetizer was the tantalizing Cheesy Garlic Baked Oysters on a long platter. The entree was nine pieces of equally cut 2X2 square inch Pork Adobo meat cubes with dark red thick sauce and parsley on top. Beauty's side dish were nine pieces of unskinned cooked potato with a small parsley leaf on top each sitting on a crunchy fried white onion ring.

Liza couldn't hold her curiosity more and spoke right away. "What is this, Beauty? You're Beauty, right?"

"Yes, my name is Beauty. This side dish is what I called Pesto Egg Potato Filled Potatoes."

"What happened to the Green Hair Wig Bald Potato?" One of Liza's eyebrows rose up.

Beauty was so embarra.s.sed earlier that she thought of changing the name. "Well, it can be named that way, too." She bit her lower lip mortified with her naming habit.

"I like the unique name, Green Hair Wig Bald Potato. It does resemble as you look at it." Paul added jokingly making Beauty almost cried in shame.

"Let's dig." Liza urgently picked up her fork and knife and cut one potato in half. She took half and ate it full of antic.i.p.ation.

"Wow, delicious. This can be an appetizer or side dish. Not so overwhelming pesto taste and creamy on the tongue." She was playing with the filling using her tongue rubbing it on the roof of her mouth.

"The filling is potato egg salad with pesto, Liza." John reminded her.

"I know but it has no mayonnaise but still creamy… Beauty, what did you do to make this creamy?" Liza couldn't get over the feeling of the fillings.

"I just put all ingredients in the food processor."

"OMG, I think I'm getting dumb. I should have known," exclaimed Liza. She's a chef for years but distracted with a side dish and forgot the common procedures.

"Guys, that's only the side dish, let's taste the rest," spoke Paul impatiently.

They ate while giving their comments. The last but not the least was the dessert. A chocolate lava cake in the mug was slightly hot when served but what shown was just a portion of the chocolate cake on top. As they dug their spoon at the middle, the creamy chocolate ganache gushed out to the judges' delight.

The judges didn't say the verdict yet but just gave their comments.

Team #6, Cathy's team was next. Though she was wondering on why the gas explosion didn't happen, her cooking was still great. She might have an eccentric character but her entree surprised everyone. It was three-inch size crunchy golden meatb.a.l.l.s with a quail egg, cheese, cooked glutinous rice fillings.

"A dish within a dish. Splendid," said Paul with vigor.

The four teams ended their presentations. The other remaining four teams cooked with all they've got in the afternoon. As the round ended, the eight semi-finalists and those who had secured their entrance for the nationals were announced.

"Cathy Mercado, Luisa Cabajes, Ernie Wong, Beauty Ferol, Rene Fritz Jones, Elaine Ramos, Nota Baile, and the last but not the least is Renee Guinto. Congratulations for being the regional representatives to the national compet.i.tion."

A round of applause reverberated when the eight individuals stood on the podium and received their certificates. They had secured their entrance for the nationals. Their faces depicted joyous countenance.

"The food you prepared was a real treat to us judges. Most of you might ask about why you were not chosen. The keywords we gave you were 'surprise' and 'lunch'. Most of your food was delicious, some were not presented well but most teams missed the keyword 'lunch'. We want a course meal, not a feast. Only a few got that. Actually, only half of the number of teams. Next, surprise. We want an element of surprise and not just any dish. So now you all understand. Better try again next time."

"Tomorrow will be the instant death elimination. The rest of you can still stay until the weekend as our treat to all the partic.i.p.ants who advanced to the second round. So enjoy your stay here in Busay Palace."

Another round of applause but louder and longer this time.

Even though the two boys didn't make it, the four members of Team #2 kept each other in contact. A bond tied the four them.