Being a single guy has it's perks! But most bachelors come to a point that they have to fend for themselves; without enough knowledge in the kitchen it'll be doubly harder to live a life tantamount to the success a person drives for. A holistic approach may suffice but without thinking about your lifestyle in particular it'll be just plain HARD. Owning a car/SUV these days call for a lot of things, but as surprised as most owners that I went with this afternoon they didn't know what they signed up for!
This is ONE HYUNDAI CLUB!
It was so nice to experience what it would be like to own one of their cars; let alone enjoy the perks that come with it!
You see, being a One Hyundai Club member would entail that you get to have this particular Life In Style 2012 Journal, something that they at HYUNDAI think every owner truly deserve. They want to celebrate the good life. Now they've got the country's greatest premium brands too covering areas such as living, shopping, dining, beauty and wellness, travel and leisure. It's about time we live in style!
This journal contains perks and privileges every month. Huge discounts on major products and services are available too.
It's definitely going to change how you live life; it's designed to change your activities. The life you deserve doesn't necessarily need to be expensive and HYUNDAI takes care of it.
Bachelor Cooking at First Gourmet Academy 
It was my first time to attend an event where I had to cook. I'm no stranger in the kitchen but I never cooked gourmet food. Mine was more of a "survival thing" otherwise I wouldn't eat while living alone. I can whip up something from things that I find in the fridge. Though this time it's way different.
Diploma Courses/Full Courses available for those who aspire to become great Chefs!
Chef Mats Loo from Sweden came out and instructed us to put our toques and aprons on; some of us were first timers in the kitchen and I've seen quite a number of accidents happen in these events but good thing nobody got cut or burned their food. Otherwise they would have ended up hungry for dinner LOL.
First things first, he told us the value of cleaning our hands. It's a must for anybody serving food to clean up otherwise someone would get sick and literally poison a few hundred people (in commercial setting). After that he told us to prepare the ingredients (mise en place - MEEZ ahn plahs). That's the fancy French term for having all ingredients prepped and ready to go before we started to cook.
Just look at the POSH + COMPLETE kitchen and you just know how complicated this is gonna be. Heheh well hopefully not so much for me.
I saw some of them were a little bit nervous, particularly the ones who just started to work in the kitchen today. Probably like me they prefer playing basketball outside than cooking at home with Mom LOL! Tough luck because we're doing Chocolate Mousse, Coq au Vin, Polenta and Minestrone Soup. The name alone made them more nervous eh?! =)
So after washing our hands to the tune of One Happy Birthday song...
Chef Mats Loo instructed us to go to our stations and start cutting vegetables. Some were cubed, diced, julienned, and minced. We cleaned up the ingredients as we did this mise en place requirement before we started cooking. I think I fared well though I'm no slicing expert. :)
For those who were EXTRA nervous, there were experienced students from the Academy to help them if needed. Happy crowd!
Chef Mats Loo whipped up boiled cream + Sugar, added Chocolate, Johnny Walker and voila! That's going to be dessert! This needs to be prepared ahead of time since it would need to chill in the fridge.
Mise en Place complete! I think I did good on this one eh?! =)
The equally good looking guy you see in this bit is Jerth. He's a proud Hyundai Accent owner and this is consequently his third car. He didn't know though that on this particular brand and purchase that it'll have perks like these. It felt really special. One email invite he got from HYUNDAI and that started the ball rolling. Now that he's a One Hyundai Club member he's excited to try out the other perks that are available in the journal. He had a glimpse of the journal for 2012 and he finds it quite nice. He's impressed at what they and HYUNDAI's partner establishments had to offer as most of them are either free or with a HUGE discount. Just like him and the rest of they guys in this cooking class, we had a pretty nice and productive time. We really are learning a lot!
Plus the view on top of Capitol hills was spectacular! I think this is the highest point in the metro. The golf course and the huge houses too was a treat to see! If you are cooking in this ambiance, wouldn't you be inspired?! :)
This is the end product! After a few hours of cooking this is Minestrone Soup! It was sweet and fresh just like the veggies on it! This one cooked the fastest! =)
Coq Au Vin with Creamy Polenta - this is a little labor intensive since you need to have a reduction of the red wine first, then after adding beef stock you need to reduce it again. But I'm telling you guys it's totally worth it! I specifically added a lot of pepper on my Chicken and seared it on the pan. It tasted like steak that even I was impressed with my own cooking! Now that barely happens! =) I'm so happy how it turned out! The polenta was so creamy and nice too! It was my first time cooking polenta and I loved it!
The Chocolate Mousse was simply divine! I didn't know it was so easy to make. I already bought the ingredients from the grocer and plan to make it this weekend. Oh my, there's already a change in lifestyle there... I'm beginning to cook gourmet now! Haha =) Isn't that neat?!
Now who says getting a HYUNDAI wouldn't change your life?!
Capisce?!
PS Thank you to the wonderful people at One Hyundai Club and First Gourmet Academy! I really enjoyed the time spent with you guys! =)
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