For Christopher and Jayzel, the past five months have been a complete blur.
Since deciding to launch their menswear line, Company of We, as a small online retailer last June, they have been called menswear’s newest design darlings and sold out of their deliciously designed yet affordable pieces several times over.
Needless to say, they are thrilled but have hardly had time to breathe. So what better way to chillax but to host a dinner party? Of course the boys (who also happen to be boyfriends) have a slight competitive streak, so they decided to have a cook-off for a gaggle of friends (and two très handsome models!). Below, Jayzel gives us a play-by-play on who won top chef for the night.
Sometimes the stress of seeing each other every day becomes unbearable — especially when you work together as well. Christopher and I, both deathly competitive by nature, have managed to find a way to assuage vivid thoughts of strangling each other through not-so-friendly competition — and we like to drag our friends through all of it. We call it our Dinner Party Cook-off.
True, on the occasions that Christopher has battled me in said cook-offs, he has been crushed miserably, left to gawk at the satisfied faces of friends who unanimously enjoyed my splendid savors over his tuna casserole.
But the times they are a-changing, and I am no longer a stay-at-home non-mom. We have a business to run. Left with the same lust for competition but deficient in time, we decided to make this month’s cook-off theme Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee.
The rules are simple: 70 percent store-bought, 30 percent homemade, and either a cocktail or an Oriental Trading Company tablescape for the first course.
Guest judges were Amina Akhtar, Austin Pierce, and Tim Bryan.

The night began with the first battle — where Christopher and I both happened to choose cocktails for our first course. His semi-homemade peach Bellini was composed of peach nectar and Prosecco — how original. Mine was an ode to Mexican street food: a chili-mango Bellini, made from only a mango fruit squeezer found in plastic tubes in the produce section, a dash of cayenne, and Cava.
Judges chose Christopher’s cocktail as the winner. My store-bought mango puree didn’t dissolve correctly.
The next course was the entrée — where each of us had to incorporate a store-bought chicken product into his dish.


Christopher made a BBQ Chicken Pizza with Fried Chicken in a Bag, Pillsbury Pizza Dough, and KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce. I made a Lemon Chicken Orzo Stew with Rachael Ray Chicken Broth and Fried Chicken in a Bag. We pulled out all the stops.
I won. Duh.
Last course was dessert. Christopher made a strawberry-cream Neapolitan with store-bought puff-pastry dough, and I made a banana-caramel profiterole and pine nuts with store-bought coconut ice cream.

The battle was tight, but in the end I triumphed again. Mwahahaha. And you didn’t even get to see my tablescape.






Jennifer says:
Models judging Sandra Lee recipes? Genius.