Just a quick note not how the competition works, on each day, the chefs have 5 hours to prepare their platters. A few things can be done ahead of time, but most of the cooking is done that day. They have about 3 1/2 hours cooking with no audience, except the many chefs who are judging them, and then for the last hour and a half, the people get to watch the chefs cook - from behind a velvet rope. There were for chefs presenting on the first day, and the schedule goes something like - chef one presents his fish platter for the judges, and while the judges are judging it visually, chef one has 10 minutes to plate his dishes for the judges (not from the platter, but from his kitchen). When things really get going, the judges are looking at the next platter while eating the previous platter. Things can get confusing.
So, it is with this caveat that I might make a few mistakes on whose platter is whose, although I tried really hard to keep things straight. I was also using 2 cameras, so I have completely different files of my thousand pictures.
On the first day of the competition, the press was given a lot of time for up-close shots of both the chefs and the platters. On the second day, however, we were forced to step in quickly for a shot and then move back. This was less than perfect because everything is in constant motion so you might get 1 good shot out of 10. Also, on the first day, we were allowed to get right up close to the platters so that I could get some great macro shots of some of the amazing presentations. On the second day, I had to show my press badge every 3 seconds (so it seemed) and was about 3 feet away from the platters, making it really difficult to get good close ups. Excuses, excuses, I know.
But one of the great things about being non-legit media is that I can show you a few less-than-perfect photos. For example - wouldn't this have been a really great picture of Hung Huynh if it wouldn't have been blurry? I still like it, because Hung is smiley and nice, even when I heard people ask him the dumbest questions nonstop. I could never be famous, because I would be like to say really mean things, like "of course I eat nothing but foie gras torchon and red currant emulsion for breakfast every morning, you idiot. And yes, I do sleep in my chef hat and my favorite knife."
