There were perhaps about 20~30 people showing up at the cooking tournament. Not all of them were here to compete, though. Darn bystanders! I'd estimate there were less than 20 cooks present at this specific tournament. Not too many people, as I had expected, since we only had one Friday after the update to obtain the cooking tournament entrance tickets, and not many people actually know much about the tournament at all.
A snapshot of not too many participants.
As I have anticipated this would be a race more of timing than precision, my strategy was to be as quick as possible and finish things before other people figure out what's going on. Even though I took some unnecessary detours to Shena's shop and to the restaurant's dock for gathering water, looks like most people are even slower at whatever they were doing. I won 1st place! Woohoo!
What happens?
At the southwest corner of Emain Macha square, the following things suddenly pop up:
The judges table with Caitin, Gordon, and Glenis, who will give out 3 cooking assignments.
2 fish/meat shops and 1 fruit/vegetables shop, where you can purchase cooking utensils and all necessary food ingredients.
3 stoves for cooking things that need a fire.
The 3 judges Caitin, Gordon, and Glenis are all known to be cooks. Poor Fraser must be too noob to make a cameo or something!
From the shops you can buy any food ingredient for the low, low price of 0g. You can even buy a shark! It expires though.
There is always a fried egg in the pan on the stove. It has been frying for as long as the tournament had begun.
How to win?
From my experience, it looks like the first 3 people to submit their 3 given assignments win automatically. I have only submitted 5-star dishes, so I do not know for sure, but I would assume anything less than 5 stars would be rejected by the judges. The exactly points (which distinguish a perfect 5-star from an imperfect 5-star) only matter for the 3 winners in determining who won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, I believe.
A snapshot of the participants and bystanders not doing much.
I will not disclose what were the 3 cooking assignments I received. But I will say that one of them involves deep-frying. So, if you wish to participate in the cooking tournament, you should have a pretty high rank in Cooking, in order to unlock the necessary cooking methods. No problem for me, since I had rank 9 cooking at this time.
Also, the last cooking assignment, given by Gordon, can be resubmitted after your first submission. This is good, since I was sloppy and turned in an imperfect 5-star for Gordon's assignment. The moment I handed it in to Gordon, I was given the winner's title and the cookbook which holds the secrets of past-making! I knew I have won then, so I took it easy and tried a few more batches to get a perfect 5-star and resubmitted it to Gordon at a much more relaxed pace.
Here are Cosmic and I standing around because we finished already. We still have to wait until the entire 1 hour is up to find out who won 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
The top 3 winners: Patchy, Cosmic, and Valentine. We are already showing off our winner's title.
[EDIT: Cosmic didn't score among the top 3 places.]
The results:
1st place: Patchy
2nd place: Stwilliam
3rd place: Valentine
Who won what place? Tell 'em, Glenis!
The top 3 winners collect their prizes,other than the title and cookbook already obtained: Chef's Hat (different based on placement?), as well as a ticket to participate in the monthly cook-off tournament.
Here is my Professional Chef's Hat.
(P.S. I'm starting to think Gordon is really Walter in disguise.)
Post-tournament shenanigans: The food shops are closed after the tournament, but they still have their manners!
