Culinary Woes.
Okay, I have a problem. At the end of last semester, the food science club had an Iron Chef-esque competition, which I'm sure you'll all remember me talking about, wherein groups of two had to come up with a chocolate-raspberry-mint dessert and were judged on it by the four FOSC instructors. You'll also probably remember that my partner and I were robbed because one of the judges didn't like creme brulee -_-;;
Well. This semester we're having another competition, and Andrea and I must redeem ourselves at all costs. However, the category this time is giving me trouble--not because it's too specific, but because it's too broad. APPETIZERS. We have to make an appetizer, not knowing if there's food one of the judges just doesn't like. I can't let that happen, but it's given me a dilemma. I want to make something SPECIAL, but not something that's going to put one of the judges off. I mean, they're FOSC professors, but they're not necessarily foodies, and they all come from a variety of culinary backgrounds (one's German, and one's Chinese, and one doesn't like creme brulee, and another one can't grasp the concept of hummus -_-). I dunno. With a background like mine, cooking for judges like this makes me want to ram my head into a wall in frustration.
So I've basically ruled out seafood. I know a lot of people don't like seafood, and since it's expensive I'd rather not waste money if someone's not going to like it on principle. I haven't completely ruled out the use of meat/poultry, but I also don't want to rule out NOT using them. For instance, I thought of doing lettuce wraps (pork or chicken), but I also thought of a trio of vegetable soups (gazpacho, split pea, and butternut squash), going on the "soup shots" idea I had at the end of my garde manger class back at BIC.
So, all this ranting aside, does anyone have any ideas? ~_~ This shouldn't be this hard, I know, but the idea of the judges being...what they are...and the need to redeem myself...they're both driving me a little kooky x.x;; Halp?
Well. This semester we're having another competition, and Andrea and I must redeem ourselves at all costs. However, the category this time is giving me trouble--not because it's too specific, but because it's too broad. APPETIZERS. We have to make an appetizer, not knowing if there's food one of the judges just doesn't like. I can't let that happen, but it's given me a dilemma. I want to make something SPECIAL, but not something that's going to put one of the judges off. I mean, they're FOSC professors, but they're not necessarily foodies, and they all come from a variety of culinary backgrounds (one's German, and one's Chinese, and one doesn't like creme brulee, and another one can't grasp the concept of hummus -_-). I dunno. With a background like mine, cooking for judges like this makes me want to ram my head into a wall in frustration.
So I've basically ruled out seafood. I know a lot of people don't like seafood, and since it's expensive I'd rather not waste money if someone's not going to like it on principle. I haven't completely ruled out the use of meat/poultry, but I also don't want to rule out NOT using them. For instance, I thought of doing lettuce wraps (pork or chicken), but I also thought of a trio of vegetable soups (gazpacho, split pea, and butternut squash), going on the "soup shots" idea I had at the end of my garde manger class back at BIC.
So, all this ranting aside, does anyone have any ideas? ~_~ This shouldn't be this hard, I know, but the idea of the judges being...what they are...and the need to redeem myself...they're both driving me a little kooky x.x;; Halp?