Chopped vs. Rumi
So I just had my appearance on Chopped debut last night on Food Network. I didn't watch it as we had a nice bit of business at Serendipity for a Tuesday; besides, I lived it so whatever they say about me is whatever they say. I really liked all the other chefs who were on my Chopped episode, so in a sense there was no competition amongst us, just competing to make our own best food in ridiculous time constraints with silly ingredients was the essence of the challenge.
I enjoyed the process, the interviews gave me time to cut to the quick on my culinary philosophy & to reflect on all the passions I bring to the plates we cook every night. The show itself was fine, a little bit too, too early in the morning so I felt kinda sick all day. My knee was injured pretty badly way back then in Feb when we shot my show, so it was hard to give my best effort as a lurching hop-a-long cook. Luckily, I heard they edited my Chopped so you couldn't tell, which is great-- because once a cook steps into the kitchen no excuses are tolerated.
The stupid ingredient tricks were pretty laughable. I had beautiful thin cut short ribs for the first course, which was ideal for rapid cuisine. I marinated the heck out of them with smoked paprika & seasme oil & much else besides in a twist on Latin & Asian flavors. It seemed like a samba of flavor to me, and I crushed up some baby pineapple (another of the 4 mystery ingredients) into my marinade. We had gorgeous baby artichokes as the 3rd ingredient, too, which pose timing issues always in quick cooking, but these were so tender & fresh that I used them with some minced shallots & lemon zest for an artichoke gremolata that slowly simmered for 10 minutes. The stupid ingredient on the 1st course was Spaghetti-O's. My idea as a poet/chef is always to destroy & transform mundane stupid ingredients, so my battle plan for the Spaghetti-O's was to use my rich marinade on the short ribs as the primary pan sauce & then to purée the living heck outta the canned noodles. My choice? Tequila, of course. So I was cursing under my breath, "Destroy this shit!" So I plopped in the can of Spaghetti-O's into the blender, adding silver tequila, and Sriracha hot sauce and half a baby pineapple. "O THE HORROR!!!" said the Chopped judges. Haha the last laugh was mine, as I used that to give a thick tomato, boozy body to the marinade. Under perfected circumstances, it would be hilarious to make the sauce as wonderful as it could be, with the ridiculous Spaghetti-O element.
I almost ran outta time in the hectic 20 minutes, and they didn't have 4 of the same kind of plate left, but I did get it all somewhat plated. I had wanted to make a lettuce wrap of it all, but well...later I thought it would make a nice quesadilla with some blue cheese & grilled pineapple. Maybe once Serendipity gets to our lunch program, I will finally see thru to the climax the Samba Short Ribs and have a good laugh, "as seen on Chopped on Food Network...."
To me, the challenge of Chopped was to bring my aesthetic as a warrior/poet who loves to surprise tastebuds & culinary expectations without regret. I think that my standards stood up, and in the second round I was undone by shitty subpar Japanese mandolines, which I hate to use so much. Nonetheless, I wanted to make a Mardi Gras mask of thinly sliced potatoes to wrap around tilefish [ingredient #1] (not something I had worked with before as it appears on more Yankee menus -- though I hear tilefish do swim in the Gulf) with strong German mustard [ingredient #2] and pimento cheese [which was I guess the stupid ingredient #3] and then all I had to do was to use gooseberries [ingredient #4] for the sauce...and done. Well, I had to butcher the fish, which is fine but in 30 minutes nobody has time to make a sauce using the fish head & bones. Pointless waste, and I told the fish head I was sorry to toss him in the trash.
You know I am not a morning person, so time peeled off fairly fast and before I knew it, I had exactly enough time to cook the fish, layered with the mustard and pimento cheese. Looking back, when I realized my frustration with the crap mandolines wouldn't lemme achieve the thinly sliced potatoes I needed, I shoulda turned to spring roll paper, which was a dish I have done before. However, I was feeling stubborn, nostalgic for New Orleans, and didn't go all out Ninja for the mind-blowing Vietnamese technique. I really got stuck in my heart on doing a tribute to the old Commander's warhorse, Fish Lyonnaise, which was crusted in potatoes. In retrospect, when you cook from the heart, you just have to live with the consequences.
Hmmm, sounds like another dish to consider although I'm not sure that gooseberries go right with pimento cheese. But wrapping the fish, which I called a New Fish en Papillote, is a neat technique, so maybe, maybe we will present a variation upon the theme. The potato crust belongs to Jamie Shannon and my fond, fond memories @CP, so if we forge ahead, another new Creole style of Vietnamese fare would be my way...
In my Rumi motivated kitchen I have time to work over the marvels in my mind to become perfected reality, bent to the will of my imagination. On so-called reality TV, the terrain is a bit more uncertain for a poet like me, but I think they got something to chew on that showed my creative methods. I'm glad I didn't see the dessert round because, with cocktail weenies, I would have slammed my knife down and said that Chopped has officially 'jumped the shark' into something that bastardizes what glorious food is all about. "Think it's funny to see a chef who has coaxed flavor from great ingredients for 30 years be faced with cocktail weenies for dessert? Well, then, you might be a mouth-breathing idiot who should change the channel and learn about something that matters!" That would have been my passionate screed & rant, then I would have muttered, "Let's go break some equipment," and I would have made molecular nonsense or be damned. Te funny thing is improbably that would have made for great television!
Chopped was quite an adventure. My producer, Rachel, was a dear person who really brought out my best angels as a provacateur poet. I am definitely glad I did it, and if they wanted to bring me back, healed up and plenty dangerous, believe it or not, Mr Ripley, I would do it all again!
I enjoyed the process, the interviews gave me time to cut to the quick on my culinary philosophy & to reflect on all the passions I bring to the plates we cook every night. The show itself was fine, a little bit too, too early in the morning so I felt kinda sick all day. My knee was injured pretty badly way back then in Feb when we shot my show, so it was hard to give my best effort as a lurching hop-a-long cook. Luckily, I heard they edited my Chopped so you couldn't tell, which is great-- because once a cook steps into the kitchen no excuses are tolerated.
The stupid ingredient tricks were pretty laughable. I had beautiful thin cut short ribs for the first course, which was ideal for rapid cuisine. I marinated the heck out of them with smoked paprika & seasme oil & much else besides in a twist on Latin & Asian flavors. It seemed like a samba of flavor to me, and I crushed up some baby pineapple (another of the 4 mystery ingredients) into my marinade. We had gorgeous baby artichokes as the 3rd ingredient, too, which pose timing issues always in quick cooking, but these were so tender & fresh that I used them with some minced shallots & lemon zest for an artichoke gremolata that slowly simmered for 10 minutes. The stupid ingredient on the 1st course was Spaghetti-O's. My idea as a poet/chef is always to destroy & transform mundane stupid ingredients, so my battle plan for the Spaghetti-O's was to use my rich marinade on the short ribs as the primary pan sauce & then to purée the living heck outta the canned noodles. My choice? Tequila, of course. So I was cursing under my breath, "Destroy this shit!" So I plopped in the can of Spaghetti-O's into the blender, adding silver tequila, and Sriracha hot sauce and half a baby pineapple. "O THE HORROR!!!" said the Chopped judges. Haha the last laugh was mine, as I used that to give a thick tomato, boozy body to the marinade. Under perfected circumstances, it would be hilarious to make the sauce as wonderful as it could be, with the ridiculous Spaghetti-O element.
I almost ran outta time in the hectic 20 minutes, and they didn't have 4 of the same kind of plate left, but I did get it all somewhat plated. I had wanted to make a lettuce wrap of it all, but well...later I thought it would make a nice quesadilla with some blue cheese & grilled pineapple. Maybe once Serendipity gets to our lunch program, I will finally see thru to the climax the Samba Short Ribs and have a good laugh, "as seen on Chopped on Food Network...."
To me, the challenge of Chopped was to bring my aesthetic as a warrior/poet who loves to surprise tastebuds & culinary expectations without regret. I think that my standards stood up, and in the second round I was undone by shitty subpar Japanese mandolines, which I hate to use so much. Nonetheless, I wanted to make a Mardi Gras mask of thinly sliced potatoes to wrap around tilefish [ingredient #1] (not something I had worked with before as it appears on more Yankee menus -- though I hear tilefish do swim in the Gulf) with strong German mustard [ingredient #2] and pimento cheese [which was I guess the stupid ingredient #3] and then all I had to do was to use gooseberries [ingredient #4] for the sauce...and done. Well, I had to butcher the fish, which is fine but in 30 minutes nobody has time to make a sauce using the fish head & bones. Pointless waste, and I told the fish head I was sorry to toss him in the trash.
You know I am not a morning person, so time peeled off fairly fast and before I knew it, I had exactly enough time to cook the fish, layered with the mustard and pimento cheese. Looking back, when I realized my frustration with the crap mandolines wouldn't lemme achieve the thinly sliced potatoes I needed, I shoulda turned to spring roll paper, which was a dish I have done before. However, I was feeling stubborn, nostalgic for New Orleans, and didn't go all out Ninja for the mind-blowing Vietnamese technique. I really got stuck in my heart on doing a tribute to the old Commander's warhorse, Fish Lyonnaise, which was crusted in potatoes. In retrospect, when you cook from the heart, you just have to live with the consequences.
Hmmm, sounds like another dish to consider although I'm not sure that gooseberries go right with pimento cheese. But wrapping the fish, which I called a New Fish en Papillote, is a neat technique, so maybe, maybe we will present a variation upon the theme. The potato crust belongs to Jamie Shannon and my fond, fond memories @CP, so if we forge ahead, another new Creole style of Vietnamese fare would be my way...
In my Rumi motivated kitchen I have time to work over the marvels in my mind to become perfected reality, bent to the will of my imagination. On so-called reality TV, the terrain is a bit more uncertain for a poet like me, but I think they got something to chew on that showed my creative methods. I'm glad I didn't see the dessert round because, with cocktail weenies, I would have slammed my knife down and said that Chopped has officially 'jumped the shark' into something that bastardizes what glorious food is all about. "Think it's funny to see a chef who has coaxed flavor from great ingredients for 30 years be faced with cocktail weenies for dessert? Well, then, you might be a mouth-breathing idiot who should change the channel and learn about something that matters!" That would have been my passionate screed & rant, then I would have muttered, "Let's go break some equipment," and I would have made molecular nonsense or be damned. Te funny thing is improbably that would have made for great television!
Chopped was quite an adventure. My producer, Rachel, was a dear person who really brought out my best angels as a provacateur poet. I am definitely glad I did it, and if they wanted to bring me back, healed up and plenty dangerous, believe it or not, Mr Ripley, I would do it all again!