Top Chef S4E6: beer & tailgating

Beer pairings:

We host an annual “anti-Maine Brewers Festival” dinner where we cook with beer and/or pair food with beer – it’s lots of fun to work out the combinations.  One quick and easy dish is mussels steamed in beer – this works well with wit beers, and you of course can drink the same beer with the dish.  My other favourite pairings are cheese (young gouda with a Belgian tripel!) and fried salty stuff – Jen’s fritters looked amazing.

  

 

Tailgating:

Know your audience.

Know your event.

I want something hot (it’s cold out).  I want something hearty (so i don’t have to buy crap food inside the stadium or leave my seat during the game) and flavourful.  I want something i can eat one-handed (because i probably have a beverage in the other).  Now – if you are competing on Top Chef – please give me something different!!

Top Chef S4E5

I loved this quickfire challenge – a great test of fundamentals – and tough.  We do occasional blind taste tests for sport (cabin fever, it’s a looong winter here) and i find i use my eyes to “taste” more than i would have thought.

The elimination challenge was a fun opportunity to show off your chops.  What’s with people not seasoning their food?   My thoughts on the elements:

Earth:  sauteed mushrooms, roasted root veggies, truffles – for an earthy salad – and i think a side of the suggested butternut squash soup would be ace – a soup and salad starter.

Air:  mousse – foam – whipped cream? a souffle! 

Water:  how about poached fish for better flavour, rather than yet more sous vide cooking?  Sushi – using seafood and seaweed.  You could sculp a seascape – a seaweed salad, a clam shell holding a seafood morsel, couscous “sand”…..

Fire:  something grilled; something spicy; something devilish – i thought these cheftestants nailed it, and i think they ended up with a better dish after arguing the details.

What would you cook?

Mmmm, candy…….freak.

I haven’t been ‘cooking colicchio’ lately due to a lack of cash and a lack of seasonality of ingredients…but i expect to be braising pork belly within the week.  Meanwhile i created an edible book for the library’s contest; my choice was Candy Freak.  Not a winner but good fun.  “Hello Peep.  Hello Eyeball.” 

           

 

Top Chef S4E4

My takeaway lesson from the Quickfire is — spend 5 minutes planning what you are going to do rather than just having at it haphazardly.

For the elimination – i was impressed that Spike and Manuel didn’t throw each other under the bus.  At the same time – a chef is a leader – and i didn’t see Manuel bringing much to the table tonight.  Have a plan, have the guts to make it good, execute.  Ok?