Ten teams, totaling 100 staff members lined up for the Warriors@Work MasterChef Cook Off last Thursday 5 June. Working in groups of ten, teams were given a selection of ingredients and exactly one hour to prepare three dishes from their mystery box of ingredients:  a smoothie, their choice from one of three breakfast dishes, and their choice from one of three afternoon snacks.

The short time allowed created a frenetic pace, with teams donning their plastic aprons, deciding what they would cook, delegating tasks, finding a spot on the barbecues, and desperately trying to trade missing ingredients with other teams.

On completion, the teams were judged on organisation and team work, preparation and presentation, taste and initiative and ambition. Some wonderful dishes were put forward including cinnamon, banana and blueberry pancakes, quinoa power porridge, spinach ricotta and corn fajitas and apricot muesli balls.

The event was a huge success with all cooks embracing the challenge and having a lot of fun (albeit with a large dose of competitiveness), but it was also an excellent team building exercise, with even some of the most reluctant chefs admitting they enjoyed the event!

It was stiff competition but the overall champions of the 2014 Masterchef Cook Off was the team from the Learning and Teaching Centre who delivered some outstanding dishes as well as wearing their own customised aprons!  The teams from Revenue Services and Property came in second and third respectively.

All recipes and photographs from the event will be available on the Warriors@Work website shortly.