It was Adil’s friend Asim’s birthday party. He, along with a present and a pizza he had made for Asim, went to his house. Adil thought Asim would be surprised when Adil would tell him that he had specially made a pizza for him, but everything turned out differently. When Adil arrived at his friend’s house, his other friends were already there. 

“Happy birthday, Asim! Guess what? I have two presents for you,” Adil excitedly declared.

Asim seemed surprised as Adil handed him two boxes. The pizza was still hot so he asked, “What’s in there, dude?”

“Open it up!” Adil urged enthusiastically.

Asim was delighted to see the pizza but when Adil told him that it was all his efforts, the friends laughed out loud and made fun of Adil. Nobody believed Adil had made it! In fact, they thought it was a girlie thing to do as boys don’t cook! The party seemed more of an embarrassment than fun for Adil. Thankfully Asim realised how uncomfortable his friend was so he quickly shifted everyone’s attention, “Guys, can we cut the cake now?”

The party went well, but for Adil, the fun was over because he couldn’t stop thinking of how his friends had made fun of him making a pizza!

Adil was 14-years-old, he loved baking and cooking. It was a hobby that he enjoyed the most. Under his mum’s supervision, he used to try out simple cooking stuff that he saw on popular TV shows. After coming back from the birthday party, Adil asked his father if he was doing something wrong by going against the set norms of society.

To this, his father laughed and said, “Not at all dear, what you are doing is perfectly normal. There are no set rules for girls and boys, it is the society that is making it up. Haven’t you seen that among the top chefs many are males? So there is absolutely nothing to worry about it, just do whatever you enjoy doing.”

A few days later, Adil saw an announcement on the notice board in his school, “Youth cooking competition, judged by the country’s top chefs!”

Adil decided to participate in the competition. For the competition, the participants had to submit properly planned recipes that they will cook within one hour and only three of the best were to be chosen. So it was a tough competition. Adil planned the perfect recipes with proper calculation of time for cooking/baking and submitted them.

After three days, the names of the three selected students were pasted on the board and Adil was surprised to see his name in the list. His friends still didn’t encourage him and kept smirking at him whenever someone talked about the cooking competition.

Finally, the competition day arrived. Adil was well-prepared and confident. He was glad to see his favourite top male chefs sitting on judges’ seats while the whole school seemed restless to see the contestants and their cooking. There were two more girls with Adil in the competition.

The countdown began. The girls were sure that they would win so they didn’t bother about the only boy with them. Adil calmly started with chopping the vegetables, chicken meat and other ingredients.

Not even one hour had passed when one of the girls finished cooking. Seeing this, the other girl panicked and started crying. The host calmed her down and she started cooking again. Adil didn’t say anything and kept his focus on his dish. Both the girl and Adil finished at the same time.

Then the judges were called upon the stage. They checked how the kids cooked and served the dish. They tasted the curry the first girl had cooked and their expression turned weird. One of the judges remarked that she forgot to put salt in it. They then moved to scrutinise the other girl’s dish. It seemed that they liked the dish.

Adil had made chicken mushroom puff pastries and chocolate coconut tarts. Adil was an expert in both the snacks but became nervous when the judges came to his table. The judges took a bite … after taking few more bites they whispered something in each other’s ears and then they were engrossed in discussion. Adil’s heart was pounding.

But when the winner was announced, he felt like crying because they called out Adil’s name.

One of the judges said, “The girls did very well, but remember even experts fail sometimes. The key is to remain calm and keep your focus. And this young boy remained composed and kept his focus on his cooking and it counts in the end. Plus, he also showed that boys can be good cooks even at this young age!”

Adil was delighted to get the prize, and everyone was amazed at his feat. When he saw his friends in the crowd, the good thing was that they were cheering more than anyone!

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 19th, 2016