A SHARP knife, a plateful of shallots, an instruction to ''do as I do'' - and Mrs Kay Dunton and Mrs Ann Bell were looking decidedly apprehensive in the company of eminent French chef Roland Durand.
Knowing it would be their turn next, they observed all the more attentively as the master set to work reducing a handful of shallots to a pile of paper-thin slices. It took seconds.
As chef de cuisine of the famous Pre Catalan restaurant in Paris, Durand should know a thing or two about cooking.
And it was the chance to learn from him which encouraged Mrs Dunton and Mrs Bell to enter the Sunday Morning Post /Hongkong Hilton competition to devise a dinner party with eight items from an imaginary fridge.
Their prize was a private cooking lesson with Durand in the Hilton Grill kitchen.
In town as part of the Hilton's 30th birthday celebrations, Durand is the second of six guest chefs at the Grill.