It was the SuperChef Universe finals at London. The prize was a SuperChef Universe title and a whopping one million dollars. There were two finalists. One was a French living in Perth and the other man a native of Zambia. Both were fine culinary experts with exemplary cooking skills. The four eminent Chefs from around the world could not decide the winner in the earlier final round and hence arranged for a penalty bout. It was like a penalty stroke in a football game. The winner would be judged by millions of people who would watch the show on their television sets. The show was a direct telecast from London.

Both the finalists were kept isolated in different places and the judges would present them with identical Mystery Box consisting three ingredients and the cooking time allotted would be a mere seven minutes. Chosen by lot, one will cook first which would be telecast while the other would be kept unaware of the event. Once the first one finishes the task, the other would start the same task with the same ingredients. The winner would be decided by the viewers and the judges.

The French was selected to attempt the task first. He opened the Mystery Box of ingredients. Surprises everywhere. The ingredients were one bowl of clear water, a cup of crystal salt and a bowl of white granular sugar. With these ingredients, the task was to create a sparkling dish. The French always had a magic touch with him and his sleight of hands was excellent. Quickly he took out a shallow melamine plate and filled it with a thin layer of iced water. Then he made a thick caramel of white sugar till it got a brown tinge. He put that caramel paste into a piping bag and squeezed carefully in the middle and made a super chef logo on the thin layer of water. Amazingly, it stuck there giving a fantastic look. He took the powder of crystal salt and carefully sprinkled it near the caramel design of Superchef as a border.

The task took him six minutes. There were loud applauds and excitement around. The judges took a small dip into the dish with their spoon and tasted the liquid and smiled at each other.

His feat was unbelievable and a marvel and there were no doubts among the spectators about his win unless the Zambian could do a miracle.

Unaware, what happened earlier, the Zambian arrived at the cooking table next. He opened the Mystery Box carefully. Showing confusion and panic on his face he read the task again on the bill board. Make a sparkling Dish. He felt relaxed then. He took the already used plate from the sink nearby, a dirty melamine plate, washed it first with the plain water, created a sugar paste and cleaned the stains on the plate with it and then mixed salt with water and got the plate sterilized. He once again washed the plate with the plain water. Five minutes over. He took the plate and wiped it clean with a linen cloth. He then warmed it for few seconds and kept it on the table. The melamine plate was gleaming clean, spotless and sparkling. Yes, he created a sparkling Dish.

The composed looking Judges said that a shrewd Chef should first understand the task and he should also know the process of culinary job from the scratch to the finish. This time, the scratch job appeared at the final of the contest.

The humble Zambian who won the event was gleaming like the dish he cleaned said to the flashing cameras “Well I know as soon as I saw my task on the bill board, it was going to be easy one for me. By the way, you know, my mother was working as a dish washer”