AS THE last precious seconds ticked away, Pierre Chan worked furiously to finish his dish. Beads of sweat began to form on his brow and he struggled to ignore the frenzied activity around him.
Amidst the popping of flash-bulbs as the other competitors proudly displayed their creations to their supporters and the waiting media, Pierre put the finishing touches to his entry. He had made it, but only just Pierre, a Form Four student at Lai King Catholic Secondary School, was competing in the finals of the Chinese section of the 19th Towngas Inter-school Cooking Contest, held at the company's cooking centre recently.
He was one of 24 budding young chefs from 11 schools who had successfully made it through the preliminary rounds of the competition.
Along with fellow competitors, he sliced, diced, steamed and fried his way to create a whole series of culinary masterpieces.
Competitors were judged on the preparation, presentation and flavour of their dishes. One of the judges, Ms Nancy Yiu who is Principal Lecturer of Home Economics at the Northcote College of Education, offered warm praise to the competitors and their entries.
She said: ''The standard's extremely high this year, there's been a definite improvement from previous years.'' The contest allowed youngsters of very different ages to come together and compete in the same culinary arena.