there i was... twittering what i was cooking and eating and drinking and i figured - what the heck. i eat, i drink, i write, i cook and i am (for the most part) unemployed - i should get into the twitter/blogosphere and express what is going on with me culinarily and otherwise... so here's the inaugural JEFFEATDRINK blog post... ciao hounds, LET'S EAT!
this past weekend i did something i didn't think i'd ever do. i went to a casting call for a reality t.v. show. fox is putting on a show called master chef where they take untrained, amateur chefs and put them through a series of exercises and the winner gets a cookbook deal or something. oh and its going to be run by gordon ramsay (master eff-bomb himself). anyhew, we were required to prepare a dish, bring it down, plate it, have it tasted by judges, and maybe, just maybe, you could get yourself a golden ticket!
so i himmed and hawed all week stressed about what i should or shouldn't make. there was no way the food would be hot - even warm when i plated it, so it had to be something that would cool down well and maintain freshness, flavor and still look good (five or six hours after preparation). i thought about pasta, meats, fish - about every possible combination, then on friday afternoon i just figured my carne asada recipe is as good as any i've tasted, so i'll make up a carne asada taco. and, while i'm at it, why not do one using pork and another with scallops - kind of a trifecta of interesting taco flavors. i'd use regular salsa on the carne asada, a sweet & sour (mango) on the pork loin, then go with fully asian flavors on the scallops. but at the grocery store, they had some awesome looking ahi, and the scallop plan got waylayed.
i got home, got the carne asada marinating, the pork marinating, then mixed up the wasabi crust for the tuna. i started putting together the shiitake/ginger/wasabi - i'm calling it a pico de gallo, because remoulade doesn't sound taco-ish enough. one taste of the shiitake/ginger pico de gallo and i decided, while those other flavors (carne asada/pork loin) were good, this was going to blow them both out of the water.
so, i grilled the ahi, seared it to perfection. the wasabi crust was there, but not overpowering. i packed everything up (with the patient help of my wife) and drove on down to the denver culinary institute where the casting call was taking place. when i arrived, the line was pretty long, and three hours and twenty minutes later, i was in the door, sticking name tag #100 onto my chest.
myself and five others were led into a large kitchen with five or six stainless steel tables in the middle of the room - each table was split into thirds, and we were given a third of the table to put together our plate of food. i pulled out all my neatly organized ingredients - the tuna, corn tortillas, spinach, avocado, cilantro, lime wedges, thinly sliced carrots (couldn't find diakon), and laid it all out on the table. i finished it up and raised my hand.
over came the judge - who said he was the director of the culinary institute here in denver. he tasted it and said it was really good. gave me a few pointers on plating and presentation and was on his way. he did say he really liked the asian flavors and commended me for it (and gave me 5/5 points for flavor - in fact i got 5/5 on all the scoring points except for presentation). one of the casting directors came over, interviewed me a bit while looking over my application and i was told if they wanted to consider me further, they'd call me after their meeting that night. and that was it. i drove home wondering what if anything i could have done differently, realizing that i was most likely not getting a call back (what i found out from another person is that she got there right before they closed the doors, liked her foods - she got 5/5's on all but one - but she got taken in for the on camera interview, etc., and is going to be considered once the national casting calls are finished). if nothing else, it inspired me to come up with something new, fresh and awesome...who knows where that will take me?!
ciao hounds-unite and take over!
until next time... this has been jeffeatdrink
