Off they go: Participants getting off the block in the hypermarket sweep event of the Palm Oil Speed Stakes.

02/09/2013 (The Star) - The usual weekend shopping experience at Giant Kota Damansara in Selangor recently was transformed into a boisterous, fun-filled affair — thanks to the Flavours Palm Oil Speed Stakes.

The contest at the hypermarket on Aug 24 was held to raise public awareness on Malaysia’s foremost agricultural export, and illustrate the widespread uses of palm oil – from food to cosmetics and household cleaning items.

The morning started with 60 teams running around the hypermarket — 10 teams at a time — collecting products that contain palm oil as an ingredient within a three-minute time limit and a RM100 budget.

“Prior to the competition, we did a bit of preparation by going to a nearby market and scrutinising the labels on a lot of products to see which contained palm oil,” said Chai Koh Khai of the team Storm Cookers.

“We learned a lot actually, since we had no idea that palm oil was used so extensively in so many products!”


Food tasting: Judges at the Flavours Palm Oil Speed Stakes cook-off, )from left) Giant Kota Damansara general manager Jimmy Chu, Marini's on 57 kitchen director Federico Michieletto and Flavours magazine senior editor Julie Wong, hard at work.

Although it was quite a challenge, the teams enjoyed themselves and rose to the occasion.

“We used to watch Supermarket Sweep on TV, so we really enjoyed the cart race in particular,” said Sahada Salihin, of The Sisters team.

“Before the event, we went to check out palm oil products after work, plus we did some research on the Internet. Our dad is in the industry — he’s with Felda — so we pretty much grew up surrounded by oil palms!” she said.

All participants got to keep their palm oil products, paid for with the RM100 shopping voucher from Giant that each team received at the start of the event.

At the finish line (check-out counters), marshals tallied each team’s haul, and used the results to narrow down the contestants to five finalists. Making the cut: The Incredibles, Butter Fingers, Spice Girls and the aforementioned The Sisters and Storm Cookers.

The five shortlisted teams then went on to compete in phase two of the Speed Stakes — the Western cuisine cook-off “black box” challenge.


Winners all: The top five teams at the Flavours Palm Oil Speed Stakes, flanked by judges Giant Kota Damansara general manager Jimmy Chu (left) and Flavours senior editor Julie Wong (right), with Italian chef Federico Michieletto behind the winners.

A black box culinary challenge involves participants coming up with dishes on the spot, with no prior knowledge of the ingredients provided. The five teams opened the boxes to find chicken as the main meat, with potatoes, pasta, vegetables and herbs as well as kitchen staples like palm cooking oil and red palm cooking oil, peanut butter and margarine.

The judges for the cooking event were Italian chef Federico Michieletto, Giant Kota Damansara general manager Jimmy Chu and Flavours magazine senior editor Julie Wong.

Lawyers Sahada Salihin and her sister Sahana — literally, The Sisters — took the first prize of RM2,000 cash and RM800 worth of Giant shopping vouchers, with their simple pan-fried dish labelled as Chicken with a Tangy, Cheesy Sauce.

Chai and his Storm Cookers partner, Karen Sha, took the second prize of RM1,500 cash and RM300 Giant vouchers, while the third prize went to The Incredibles (Georgen Thye and Foong Pui Hing), who received RM700 cash and RM100 Giant vouchers.

Butter Fingers (Palaniappan Kaartik and M. Nithya) took fourth place, winning RM400 cash and RM100 Giant vouchers, while the Spice Girls (Julie Siow I Choo and Chong Sook Mun) were fifth, getting RM200 cash and RM100 Giant vouchers.

The final five teams also took home an induction cooker each.

Question time: Meal vouchers from hotels were given out during a public quiz session on the benefits of palm oil.


Quest ion time : Meal vouchers from hotels were given out during a public quiz session on the benefits of palm oil.

All 60 teams went home with goodie bags containing Carotino and Buruh cooking oils, the August issue of Flavours, and Kopiko coffee sachets.

Meal vouchers from Federal Hotel KL, Hotel Capitol KL, Swiss Garden KL and Berjaya Times Square Hotel were also given out to the audience during a public quiz session on the benefits of palm oil.

The Flavours Palm Oil Speed Stakes was organised by Flavours, Malaysia’s premier food lifestyle magazine published monthly by Star Print, with Giant hypermarket as the venue sponsor.