#CloverLBCO brought some Italian flair into the Way Better™ kitchen as the teams learned how to make homemade pasta and sauce as well as a dessert pizza, a.k.a. ‘Treatzza’. As always, each dish was judged on the five senses, with creativity and teamwork weighing the final tally, but in this round each team needed to show some real skills in their cooking – needless to say, the pressure is getting real in the kitchen.

In their first challenge, Colourful Tangy Twist’s Brenda and Elenor made Fettucine Bolognaise. They wanted to make the dish their own, so instead of finely chopped vegetables Colourful Tangy Twist left their veggies chunky, which Zuraida enjoyed. Brenda, Big Cook from Colourful Tangy Twist, says, “We feel totally blessed to have made it through to the second round from the Wild Card episode; it’s such an exciting journey!”

The team also struggled with their Treatzza – their first attempt blew up like a balloon because they hadn’t poked any holes in their pizza dough, and their second attempt didn’t work either as they had poked too many holes in their dough. It was ‘third time lucky’ for them, though, when they made their Rocky Safari pizza with a ‘goopy lake’. However, Chef Martin Kobald pointed out that “less is more” when making pizza and that Colourful Tangy Twist’s pizza had too many toppings.

Elize and Lize from Team Magic Mix are proud to have made it this far in the competition. Mom has realised that Lize can actually do a lot in the kitchen and that she thinks out of the box: “I’m impressed with what she can come up with,” Elize commented. Little Cook Lize says that the competition has given them a great opportunity to bond.

Magic Mix gave it their best to make Farfelle Pasta with a creamy mushroom and ham sauce, which they garnished with peppers and aubergine chips. “It’s very different to what I am used to,” Lize commented, “I’m not very familiar with Italian food so the pasta dish was a challenge for me.” Nevertheless Magic Mix received top comments from the judges with Chef Martin saying “It’s beautiful.” Elize and Lize sweetened things up with their colourful, fruity Treatzza with gooseberry sauce.

Shakers and Bakers (Rekha and Kiara Nirghin) incorporated a crispy texture to their dish by adding a parmesan crisp to their Roasted Butternut Ravioli with a brown butter and sage sauce. Chef Coco Reinarhz loved the presentation, saying that it was one of the best-looking Ravioli dishes he had seen, and Chef Martin Kobald commenting that he couldn’t fault it.

Kiara has always wanted to make a Treatzza and the team made theirs to look like a savoury pizza, just with a sweet twist. The team made a ‘cheese’ noodles out of white chocolate ganache with strawberries as their ‘salami’.

At the judging of the dishes, Chefs Coco and Martin pointed out that the pasta is the “hero” of the dish, not the sauce, so both would have preferred the contestants to show off their pasta and not hide it away under the sauces and toppings. “However,” they commented, “the teams all performed like champions today.”

Sadly, only two champions could proceed to round three: Teams Magic Mix and Shakers and Bakers. Colourful Tangy Twist were not disheartened by their departure, with Little Cook Elenor saying, “It was a great experience. I’m so grateful for all the advice from the chefs. It’s something that we can take home and experiment with.”

Clover’s Little Big Cook Off will be taking a two-week break to enjoy the Cricket on 16 August and 23 August. This means that after episode 7 (9 August 2015), #CloverLBCO episode 8 will air on 30 August 2015, episode 9 will air on 6 September 2015 continuing weekly till the last episode on the 4^th October.