This made her mind relaxed and gave her an idea. If she couldn't have a winning streak, at least, she could show everyone that she would still have won if Rene were able to continue. With this wrong motive in mind, she asked the judges to allow her to continue and let her present her dishes later. They gave their consent and praised her thinking it was for a desire to display her art.

. . . . .

Before the pandemonium was in play, Beauty had a dilemma on her own. Her expected thin nice noodles bloated into a fat oval-shaped fried dough. To be exact, a long dark brown banana shape fried object was staring at her. The taste was a little bit sweet and salty. The appearance was bizarre to her eye. This was not she wanted.

"I should have known there were yeast, cream, and sugar in the bun dough," lamented Beauty. She felt tired seeing this unexpected thing in front of her. Somehow, was thankful that she tried frying some 'noodles' earlier and saw the problem which could be fixed on time. "What I'm going to do now? There's still an hour and a half left…" Suddenly, she heard crus.h.i.+ng sounds. She looked at where the sound came from and saw the wounded Rene and the paled face Cathy sitting on the floor.

She asked Nota, who was near her on what exactly happened. Unfortunately, she was also very busy that she had no idea at all.

"People, focus on your work. Don't mind what happened. Just be careful when you're running about from your workstation to the oven and vice versa so we won't have any more accidents like this." Judge Paul spoke in a timely manner.

The hall was silent for a while then resumed its frenzied state after.

Beauty went back to her dilemma. To release her tension, she started speaking her thoughts out loud. "I need to make another dough without those. Okay, let's try again." She did what she planned and it worked out fine. She tried frying some and boiling a few. Upon tasting she decided to only do the latter. Her cooking continued.

Finally, the three-hour allotment was almost up. Everyone was giving their best to put all finis.h.i.+ng touches and made their dishes attractive.

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… hands up," hollered the excited spectators with the judges.

"Now let's start with number 1. The two E's, Elaine and Ernie, please bring your dishes up front."

There was a long table where both were told to place their dishes. Elaine placed hers on the right side while Ernie's at the left of the table.

The judges took turns to ask and give their comments appraising their work. Elaine presented Baked Fish Fillets with apple cream sauce. The fillets were covered with light yellow creamy sauce. It was really appetizing just gazing at it. The other one was b.u.t.tered fish with sweet and sour sauce. The last was grilled whole fish with sliced apples on top with white sauce at the side.

Ernie's work was more unique. Grilled Cheese Fishb.a.l.l.s skewered with sliced apples with red chili sauce at the side. Cheesy Fish Churros and Apple Churros where placed in one long platter. Their respective condiments: creamy cheese sauce in a small bowl and syrup in another where placed at the front. His last dish was creamy fish soup with fried crunchy apple and fried garlic tidbits, on top.

No compet.i.tion at all, Ernie won.

Beauty and Nota's turn next.

The latter presented her dishes in a circular basket with banana leaf. There was this grilled whole fish with sliced apple and other spices within it. Two kinds of sauces were on the side, thin soy sauce with lemon, and cheese sauce. In the middle of the basket was golden fried crumb coated Crunchy Fish b.a.l.l.s with melted cheese in the middle. Her last dish was grilled fish fillet in a tin foil wrap, but there was this partly burnt cream all over it. The judges cringed seeing the burnt sauce but after tasting, it was not bad at all.

Beauty's Fried Fish Sandwich was first in line on the table. It was rectangular in shape with golden brown crust in a circular arrangement placed in a round plate. An inch drop of red speckled pale yellow sauce was on top on each. This same condiment was in a sauce dish in the middle of the fried sandwiches.

The second plate has light brown flat noodles formed like a nest with Fish Ala King white thick sauce in the middle. On top of the thick sauce with fish chunks were shredded cheese, fried garlic tidbits, and swirls of green onions.

The last one was No Bake Apple Buns diagonally placed on colored table napkin in a native basket. One could directly see dark brown fish tidbits were incorporated in the bun dough. Each bun has partly melted shredded cheese on top.

Both cooks prepared good tasty dishes with the good presentation giving the judges a headache. Each of them was asked to fill in the curiosity of the judges. At the same time, to help deepen their understanding of each recipe. They were now comparing its difficulty level, uniqueness, and creativity.

In the end, the judges decided to grade the dishes 1-5 points after tasting each. After the deliberation Beauty won by 4.5 points difference. Nota was restless, she asked for the reasons why she lost. They showed her their scores before tallying. John's scores for Nota was 4, 5, 3.5. Liza was 4, 5, 3. From Paul, 3.5, 5, 3. The overall score was 36.

For Beauty, John gave her 4, 5, 5. She got a 3.5, 5, 5 from Liza. The last one, Paul showed 3.5, 4.5, 5. The total score was 40.5.

Nota was still not satisfied. "Please, I want to hear an explanation why I lost over her. Most of all, her fish ala king is totally a common dish but got high scores."