The Big Break: Breaking barriers in
Asia for the Asian Food Channel
Riveting, emotional and full of heart.
Those are words that would best sum up the show The Big Break currently
airing on the Asian Food Channel (AFC).
Similar in concept to Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Apprentice program, where
fifteen delinquent youths get mentored and trained under the chef at his
restaurant competing to launch culinary careers, The Big Break is a show
conceptualised by AFC.
In The Big Break, 12 youths from six countries across South-East Asia -
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, South Korea and Mongolia - go
through 11 weeks of exciting challenges in Resorts World Sentosa's
internationally-renowned restaurants under the tutelage of their award-winning
and Michelin-starred chefs.
The 12 are picked from all walks of life, and are pitted against each
other, battling for a grand prize of a scholarship worth over S$30,000 at
At-Sunrice Globalchef Academy in Singapore that is co-sponsored by RWS for a
life-changing opportunity.
Currently, only three contestants remain competing in this final episode
- Nico from Singapore, Lawrence from the Philippines and Eli from Malaysia.
At a special preview of the final episode of this contest, some of the
local chef wannabes also took time off their schedules to attend the reveal of
The Big Break winner. And besides shedding a little hair thanks to some of them
currently serving their national service, other things were shed as well. Namely,
tears.
Yes, it did get a little emotional for some of the contestants while
watching the last episode, but I won't say too much about it lest I give the
ending away.
During the event at Equarius Hotel, Maria Brown, co-founder and chief
executive of the Asian Food Channel, spoke briefly about how she faced
manynaysayers who discouraged her from setting up a food channel - many of whom
did not believe that Asia was a mature and sophisticated enough market to
garner a strong following. So it was with deserved pride that she gushed about
the new baby - The Big Break - one of the stars in AFC's growing list of
original productions.
The stories of the youths the series helped across Asia are also
heartwarming.
There is 19-year-old Elizabeth, aka, Eli, who is an only child and lives
in Malaysia with her family in government housing. Elizabeth was born with a
partially impaired left eye to a recovering alcoholic father, and diabetic mom.
Lawrence from the Philippines is 17, and has four other siblings.
Abandoned by his father when he was a mere 8-year-old, his mother could not
afford to raise him and his siblings. so she sent them away to live under the
care of Tuloy Sa Don Bosco Street Children Village in Manila.
Then there is Nico. With his big grin, and quiet nature, one would
hardly expect the 18-year-old to be a troublemaker. But as a result of falling
into a bad crowd when he was younger, he got into trouble with the law and put
in probation as a youth.
In fact, the bright Singaporean hopes to one day study under the
mentorship of celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay. And quite honestly, having the
Australian Chef Alan Orreal - the Executive Chef of RWS- as judge and mentor,
is a huge step in that direction.
But it is stories like that which make the show even more watchable. You
learn more about each of the apprentices as they rotate around the many
high-profile restaurants in the resort, facing new challenges and different
cuisines with diverse ingredients - but what makes it better is that you soon
start rooting for different ones because of where they are from, or what they
have been through.
You feel their tension as they cook up a storm in the knowledge that a
life-changing opportunity is on the line.
They are the underdogs and you want them all to win.
But alas, there can only be one winner.
You just have to tune in to the last episode when it airs on Wed, Jan 30
at 10pm, Singapore time.
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