If democracy were an omelette, principles such as freedom of speech, opinion and the press would be thrown into the mix.
And just like different people like their eggs cooked differently, the UK would take its democracy omelette with some "Queen" sauce, the US would season it with "President" and communist China would decline an offer for a sprinkle of "Parliament".
This was democracy made simple in a video clip produced by German journalism student Andreas Schuette, who participated in the Democracy Video Challenge when he was on an exchange programme at the University of Malta.
"I wanted to find an easy way to explain that democracy is different in different countries... I was cooking when the idea for the video came to me," he said, adding that it was filmed at the University Residence's kitchen in Lija.
Mr Schuette, 28, was one of three students from Malta whose democracy videos were chosen as semi-finalists in an American video competition.
The other two were 21-year-olds Mark Scicluna and Kane O'Flaherty, both graphic design students at the Malta College of Arts Science and Technology.
Inspired by classic cartoons and retro video games, Mr Scicluna's video features the cartoon of a governor who refuses to allow an upcoming election. A super-hero-style character comes to the rescue and beats up the governor knocking justice, voting rights and rule of law into him. When the governor is defeated, lying on the ground he asks the hero: Is violence democracy?
"My message is that by taking the law into your hands you won't get anywhere... Democracy is about discussion," Mr Scicluna explained.
As seen through Mr O'Flaherty's lens, democracy is all around us... all you have to do is listen. His video airs the views of various people about democracy. One girl says her father tells her that democracy is something on the lines of Santa Claus.
"I wanted to give the views of different people and not only mine," Mr O'Flaherty explained.
The three semi-finalists were among 30 students from Malta who participated in the challenge coordinated by the US Embassy.
Judges will then choose three finalists from each of the six world geographic regions as defined by the US Department of State (Western Hemisphere; East Asia Pacific; Europe; Africa; Near East; and South and Central Asia) and three anonymous finalists.
The 21 finalist videos will be posted on the contest site (www.videochallenge.america.gov) in mid-May and the public will have a month to vote for their favourite videos using YouTube's rating system.
One grand prize winner from each of the six regions and one anonymous winner will be announced in mid-June. Regional winners will be exposed to members of the film and movie industries at the gala screenings of the videos.