Hello my beloved readership,

a statement ultraviolet with a whole lot of gold created the ultimate good-luck-charm for my “Küchenschlacht”-nail-art. Check out more about it here.

At the end of July up to the beginning of August I had the chance to be the part of a German cooking-show. “Die Küchenschlacht” (Engl.: The Kitchenbattle) is a German television show which is aired on the second national channel from Monday to Friday on 2:15 pm. Six hobby-cooks are participating against each other preparing meals within 35 minutes. They have one celebrity star-chef as host and mentor by their side and one other as awarded chef is judging the meals after tasting them. As a result one meal gets eliminated each round and with that the cook behind it. The judgement itself takes place completely anonymously in front of a live-audience. The mottos under which the meals are prepared during a usual are:

• favorite meal
• starter
• vegetarian (no meat, no fish)
• Motto X (as preparation for the ChampionsWeek where you prepare a meal under a random motto by your host-chef)
• Final meal with a recipe by your host.
  If you follow me on Instagram here you can see me post regularly about my participation and even (re-)watch my live-talk with the Q&A.

It is a very intense time you get to spend there on set and ahead of the work on set with a lot of people: your fellow competitors, the editors, the chefs with celebrity.status and of course your audience and I can assure your that the heat is real: you have your raw products and you cook like you would for the ones you hold dear every day – it is not like the meals are prepared on their own. You do invest a lot of energy and effort and the emotions are just as real so that you get to grow into a family and become a part of this huge amazing patchwork-family. It is incredible how strangers are approaching you once the filming is done trying your meals and telling you how they cheered for you. It is a game as well as an amazing experience. And if you think that it is just a one-sided huge honor for you to cook for awarded chefs, they do return the respect and approach you on a very personal base appreciating your effort and achievement as well as learning about your uniqueness and even new things from you for their own. I would definitely say that this is how the participation in the Eurovision Song Contest must be feeling like: It is a friendly competition between different people with different backgrounds representing different stories and a game at the same time but most of all it is a precious experience you get to get gifted with. So huge thanks to everyone who made this special.

Nails by Hanny Beautiful Nails

So after many calls, many tries and many years it finally happened my participation in the “Küchenschlacht” was safe. And as it got serious my nervousness hit me all of a sudden: “Holy, I am going to compete against real hobby-cooks who take cooking seriously, as if they would be working in a five-star-restaurant. They know technical vocabulary that I have never heard of…”

It was thoughts like these that were spooking around on my mind. So as much as things are important to me I grab out as many good-luck charms as I have (from all the experiences I have made I cannot really tell if they actually helped but still they give me a good feeling, relax me and get my feet back on the ground). And my nail-do that stays longer with acryl- or gel-polish forms the perfect base for that.

On the day when I did my nails I first passed by the nail-studio to reach my appointment to do eye-brows for which I had made up and appointment. Usually I also do one for my nails to make sure everything would go according to my tight plan-schedule as I prefer to have nails and eye-brows done freshly for important events. This one turned out to be a little bit too tight. The eye-brow-studio was a few doors further but would not have taken so long like nails. As I found the nail-studio quite empty I asked if I could return in approximately 15 minutes. The owner of the nail-studio preferred me to step in right now but that would not have matched my other appointment as I explained to him. So we agreed that I would return later… If I had known before… (this one you have read here) I returned and the nail-studio was full. Still they had taken me as their customer that day, I mean, what other choice did I have? My nails were already sanded down and I could not leave like this even if I was asked to return the next day. I had a date with a good friend of mine which luckily got a little bit delayed from her side and sadly was not completely flexible later on. However, after spending almost three hours approximately in the nail-studio also I started to go a little bit crazy there as I knew I would be later even thus the delay. And I was nervous because I had no other chance to have my nails done despite it being full the way it was because I did not have time to get my nails done before the big event.

As I got to speak to the owners of the nail studio at some other point they told me that agreements on an appointment at short notice via WhatsAapp (the way I prefer it) are not recommended because messages cannot be checked and replied always immediately. Also coming spontaneously without an appointment at the beginning of a month (especially in summer) is also difficult since people usually have money then and need new nails done for their summer holidays. I would still like to thank Hanny Beautiful Nails for their kind treatment and dedication towards me.

Love, Johanna