After the success of TV's Masterchef more and more kids are requesting Masterchef themed birthday parties.  This is a guide to running your own.  The first step is to be organised (sorry).  This was what I did for 8 girls at my daughter's 10th birthday party recently:

1. Ordered 2 sets of disposable coloured aprons from somewhere like www.alpersteindesigns.com.au.
2. Make sure you have lots of bowls, plates and miscellaneous cooking implements around the house.
3. A week before the party make a large portion of a favourite recipe which has lots of ingredients such as Minestrone Soup (mine has 17 ingredients) - freeze and defrost on the day.
4. The day before the party, make up a bowl of jelly and chocolate moose.

On the day of the party:

1. Pre make the dough for Pita Bread, but don't finish the recipe or cook it.  Separate the dough into bowls for each team.  (Kids love kneading the dough and rolling it themselves.)
2. Pre-chop chicken to make BBQ kebabs - it's too slippery for normal kids to chop (I know they did it on Junior Masterchef, but the kids at the party will be more normal than that).
3. Soak wooden skewers for BBQ kebabs.

When the Guests Arrive:

1. Make everyone pick an apron - the 2 who pick the same colour are a team.  Separate the kids into their teams.
2. Get the kids to knead and roll the dough and roll it into pita bread portions, then set it aside.
   
3. Bring out vegetables (the kids can chop these themselves), any sauces and marinades you have in the fridge.
4. Get the teams to take two skewers per child and mark the end of each with a texta in the colour of their team.  Then chop the vegies, marinate the chicken and thread their ingredients onto the skewer.
5. Bring out any salad ingredients and get each team to prepare a salad.
   
6. Get another adult to cook the pita bread and kebabs on the BBQ while you run the taste test challenge with the favourite recipe you have pre-made.
7. Get the kids to plate up and present their food for judging.
   
8. Make sure the teams know they will lose points if their workstations aren't clean!  (Saves you doing so much cleaning up and is very funny to watch.)
   
9. Bring out the jelly, chocolate moose, ice cream, cream, strawberries, bananas and any dessert toppings you have.
10. Get the teams to make the desserts and plate up for judging.

This was such a fun party.  The kids have been raving about it and I was amazed at the creativity 10 year olds have - they too inspirations from their parents cooking and from watching junior Masterchef.  The stories they had to tell about their dishes at the judging were hysterical and the competition of it all was very popular. 

I awarded prizes for the main course, the taste test challenge and the dessert sections.  I actually had fun too!