MUMBAI, June 24: As the two teams busied themselves with the task of creating a gourmet's delight with cocktail to match in his kitchen, Casa Mexicana's chef, Sameer Miglani, looked rather nervous. It wasn't the competition that was worrying him, his concern was the final outcome of the contest - the winning dish, which was to become a part of the restaurant's menu.Twelve men mingling nervously driving Miglani up the wall with their sometimes outrageous demands for ingredients evoked little confidence in him. That they were all painters of repute obviously didn't help.But he kept a smiling face. After all, it was his bosses' idea. The interface between art and culinary expertise was a part of an art camp that Hotel Oberoi is hosting to mark its twenty-fifth anniversary.As it turned out later, it wasn't such a bad idea after all. As soon as the teams - Team A comprising Karl Antao, Manu Parekh, Kahini Arte Merchant, Satish Gupta, Paresh Maity and Vijendra Sharma and Team B comprising Madhvi Parekh,Suhas Roy, Jaideep Mehrotra, Gurcharan Singh, Angeli Sowani and the Art Trust's Vikram Sethi - started their hunt for the right ``colours'' and ``frames,'' it became clear that the marriage would work.Mehrotra seemed to be more interested in an elegant glass to serve the cocktail than the contents that went into the drink, while Satish Gupta used a cactus as garnish to give his drink called `Fire and Ice' just the right framing. Even with the food there were more arguments about the presentation as each tried to leave his or her signature on the final product. Though Miglani tried his best not to interfere, sometimes it was just impossible. ``I hope you are not going to put those tortillas in the pan,'' he said to a contestant when he asked for more of the special Mexican chips. Vikram Sethi looked quite pleased with himself. ``I am going to start cooking classes after this,'' he said. Karl Antao, though, was not so sure. ``I think making sculptures is easier than cooking. Though this is fun..cookingreally is just another art-form,'' he added.Thirty minutes later it was time to unveil each team's creations. The teams had to explain their dish to the judges. ``My drink is called `Fire and Ice' and is very pure,'' claimed Team A's Satish Gupta. He had made a drink heavily laced with tequilla. But the winning drink was his teammate Paresh Maity's `Casa Maria', which had both French liqueur and tequila in it and some tomato juice too. Team A won the food competition too with their dish `Pollo Mexicano'. They said it represented a painting depicting the people of Mexico and their spirits. Well, perhaps it was an abstract. But not only did it look good, it tasted fine too! Now, the artists will go back to their paintings that they have been working on at special studio at the Oberoi's. These will be displayed at the end of the week-long celebrations. Today's competition, the organisers explained, was a chance for the assembled artists to let their hair down. The winning team members did, each with atequilla slammer!
