Thursday, December 10, 2009

TOP CHEF


So last season a group of friends introduced me to Top chef on Bravo. It was during a dinner party - and the conversation went from taking bets on who the Top Chef would be - to plans for our own "cook-off" for the season finale party. It was a tough match as this a group of people who like food - and damn if everyone doesn't have some kind of cooking talent!

The theme was New Orleans (for the finale of the show) I pulled Vegetarian - which was REALLY difficult - but I did ok. Came in second under the 2 who tied for first - and people liked my dish.

So this year for season six - the host threw a curveball at us (just like in the show) and we had to prepare dishes inspired by music. A song, an artist, a genre etc...and bopnus points for a playlist that went along with your dish! We had a set pannel of judges (who were pretty amazing with the notes and critiques and personalities etc. We had our own "Price Waterhouse" counting team and we had a crew of chefs who were all bringing their A game - no doubt.

I pulled Fish as my protein and due to some serious family issues and having to move over the weekend I was feeling pretty stumped and un-inspired. But while working on editing some photos my iTunes was on and the Slumdog millionaire Soundtrack came on. Hmmmmm....it started to click. After many many years of going back and forth to England - i was introduced to Indian food properly and must admit I do enjoy it. However I have NEVER made any Indian food from scratch - so of course that's what I chose!

I found a recipe for Fish Pakura - a fried fish popular with street vendors and served with chutneys or tomato sauce. So I found a few recipes - really gambled by picking and choosing my favorite elements of them all AND chose corn flour to make it Gluten Free and decided to take a chance.

Made the tomato mint chutney, (bought the mango ginger one) got 3 huge beautiful fresh Cod fillets and headed on over. It was a bit stressful having NEVER made the dish and frankly have never done a lot of deep frying in the past either - but it turned out quite well and got a great response.

There was some REALLY great food, desserts and specialty cocktails - but when the points were added up - I pulled it out! TOP CHEF! Oh YEAH!

Waiting for a picture of my dish from a friend to post - and the hostess and I (she came in first last year and second this year) have a feeling we will be going head to head in the future - all in great fun.

So you think you can cook? Come see what we can do!

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