Monday, 12th January 2015

Fauziah Ridwan
0403511027
Tugas Akhir Pengkajian Budaya Inggris dan Amerika

Demo Cooking with Chef Vindex

On Saturday, 6th December ago, was my second visitation at @america.
Previously, I knew its location @america which is located in the Mall Pacific
Place on the 3rd floor from my friend who worked there. @america is only exist
in Indonesia which a place where we can explore the culture of the United States
nowadays, this place provides those facilities such as the iPod to access, XBOX, a
bookshelf, consultation room for a scholarship to America, an advanced tool to
see the earth and there is one room with a special stage event. This place is perfect
for those who are interested in American culture, because every week there would
be always held an event and it is been held over 2000 events with various themes.
For example, people who had come there was Miss Universe, the band Guns and
Roses, one of the players Twilight, and so on.
My intention came to @america was to see Chef Vindex performed a
cooking demonstration and at the same time I made it as my reference material for
my final assignment. Besides the theme was very seductive, I also wanted to see
Chef Vindex demo cooking as live because I could only watched him from the
television in the Master Chef show. Apparently, this was a cooking demonstration
event which one from those events whose organized by @america in order to
celebrate their fourth anniversary. The event, which I visited on that day was quite
enjoyable, that themed was Classic American Dessert with typical American
desserts menu like Apple pie, Cheesecake and Chocolate Chip Cookies.
First of all, the event was opened by the MC, and then continued with a
speech from representatives of the US embassy of Jakarta and then Chef Vindex.
Before starting the cooking demonstration, Chef Vindex said that there would be

only two types of desserts that would be in the demo that was Chocolate Chip
Cookies and Apple Pie. The Cheesecake only explained throughout by pictures,
but the visitors could even taste it after the event. He explained that the American
people really like sweet foods, especially after eating the main course there should
be interspersed with sweet foods. As they said, eating sweet foods can make them
feel happy, moreover eaten with family or friends. Also he explained to us that
Americans preferred dessert in the form of cakes and pies.
The first dessert in the demo was Chocolate Chip Cookies. It is a dough
composed of butter and both brown and white sugar with semi-sweet chocolate
chips. This Chocolate Chip Cookies usually eaten as desserts or snacks. Chef
Vindex said we did not need to worry, because cookies can be made by anyone
and the material are very easy to find. The ingredients are only unsalted butter,
sugar, brown sugar, whole egg, egg yolk, cake flour, salt, baking powder, vanilla
essence, and chocolate chips. In the end of the demo, he said for those who cannot
eat sweets, the sugar can be changed to diabetic sugar or the chocolate chip
replaced with dark chocolate.
After that, continued by Apple Pie cooking demonstrations. Apple pie is a
fruit pie or tart in which the filling principal ingredient is apple. It is sometimes
served with whipped cream or ice cream on top, or alongside the cheddar cheese.
Pastry is generally used top and bottom, making it a double-crust pie, the upper
crust of which may be a circular shaped crust or a pastry lattice woven of strips.
However, the tips for making apple pie need a good special apple, apple granny
smith. The fruit has a hard, light green skin and a crisp, juicy flesh, and has been
used since then.
Then the last one was the Cheese Cake, which is only described how to
make it throughout pictures. Chef Vindex also gave tips on how to make it
because at the time of making cheesecake, its temperature should not be high
because the cheese should be moist and soft when it is eaten. Then the type of
crust could be any kind of biscuits. In the end of the cooking demonstration, the

audience was given three pieces of dessert recipes. After it is done, all of us
hurried to go out from stage room to eat Chocolate Chip Cookies, Apple pie, and
Cheesecake. The surprising thing, the taster provides more than the number of the
spectators. So, we could eat as much as until we were satisfied.
After all, I was very happy and did not feel regret for coming to @america
even though the show started at 6:30 PM. I thought I was come late and the place
was already full, but then my prayers came true, it was not so crowded. The
happiest thing was I could taste the desserts by Chef Vindex whatever I wanted.