The team’s winning rice pudding. Photo: Gabriel PerconteA culinary team called The Maltesers triumphed at this year’s Maltese Cook Off in Melbourne, Australia.
The team, made up of Sandra Galea, Darren Attard and Nicholas Galea, came up with the winning combination of stuffed eggplants and rice pudding, winning over the judges.
Phyllis Restall and her twin sons Matthew and Christopher’s steamed meat and potatoes and date cushions (imqaret) placed second, followed closely by Sue Edwards, Jarrod Edwards and Lena Cassar with their widow’s soup (soppa tal-armla) and bread pudding.
The teams with the most ‘Malteseness’ in their prepared menus were found to be The Maltesers and Maltese Tucker.
The People’s Choice Award went to Jacinta Portelli, Gavin Dudley and Carmen Deguara’s eggplant relish (kapunata) with homemade bread and beef olives (braġoli).
The event was a mixture of food and music, attended by aboout 200 guests and entertained by musicians Nicky Bomba and Michael Caruana and singer-songwriter Jacinta.
This was the third edition of the Maltese Cook Off held by community group Nisġa. The event brings together 10 teams made up of three people from the same family to cook traditional Maltese food.
This year’s judging panel consisted of Maltese chef Anton Camilleri, former Master Chef contestant Tregan Borg, chef Shane Delia’s mum Doris Delia and last year’s winner Doris Catania.