Life as AFAC

BBH Shanghaiers are fantastic cooks so I started an Iron Sheep competition . It’s a parody to the tv show, Iron Chef; the sheep is a pun because BBH are called the black sheep of advertising.

We are so multi-racial in the office we can give UN a run for its money. So Iron Sheep is celebrated every National Day of someone in the office. The first one was Iron Sheep Philippines on our Independence Day last June 12, 2007. People must prepare Filipino food even if they have no idea what it looks or taste like. (The wonders of the net.) Then the person from that country, aka yours truly, will judge who made the best Filipino food.

Our CEO Arto made a mean Sinigang na Baboy. Arto was with O&M Manila for a few months and has a Pinay yaya (his, not his kids’). But he claims he made the sinigang himself, which is very yummy! I was so touched because he is the busiest of us all and I badgered him to join one very late friday night… while he was in a business trip in Singapore! Haha, I didn’t know he was out of town. Chinese chef Hao Kai made his version of fried chicken, and I made Beef Kaldereta for the first time ever. I had to YM Jerry Hizon to teach me how to cook it. Then I ordered crispy pata and sisig from the Macau-Portugese resto which serves Pinoy food (weird). Some backed out from the showdown at the last minute because we are soooo busy! Nontheless, our planner Phil took time out to make Philippine Flags, how sweet. Everyone was wearing and waving the flag of the Philippine Islands on June 12. The winner of the first Iron Sheep is Armenian chef Arto! Yay! His dish is more popular than mine and the Pinoy cooks from the restaurant.

It was so successful that we are doing it every National Day. Last wednesday we had the 2nd one for 4th of July. Iron Sheep America! We have 6 contenders this time and the judge was my partner from New York, Yinbo. People brought all kinds of food that are not even remotely American, so I just thought of names for them. The Hainanese chicken rice became New York Take Out. The veggie burgers became South Beach Burgers and so on. The power of name studies. Haha. Contenders were Singaporean chef Chiewy, HK chef Phil, British chef Anna, Chinese chef Hao Kai, Chinese chef Jasmine, and a last minute Banana Split entry from Malaysian chef Kelly. We made posters, Miss USA sashes, flags. And our accounts director Anna even edited a music video on her phone!! The stakes are getting higher! Anna who did a fabulous Tex-Mex Taco won the American flag this time.

The next ones will be Iron Sheep Singapore on Aug 9 and Iron Sheep Malaysia on August 30. When Singaporean Chiewy was rattling off the Singaporean dishes she wants us to cook, Malaysian Kelly kept editing her, “Hey! That’s a Malaysian dish! That one too! First you stole our food, then you stole our water!” Hahaha. (Apparently water is a big issue among the two countries. Singapore buys water from Malaysia cheaply, process them, then sell to Malaysia at a steep price.)

Arto, who wasn’t in town last Wednesday, vowed to reclaim his title from Anna at the Iron Sheep 3. Abangan…

Paalam!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 6th, 2007 at 12:38 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.