I competed this morning in the first round of NYU Master Chef. As I mentioned in earlier posts, my menu was composed of blintzs three ways (plain cheese, greens and mushrooms, and caramelized onions and sweet potato). The competition was held in a very nice kitchen classroom in the nutrition department of NYU. I quickly found a small cast iron pan worthy of blintz shell making --- whew! I had 20 minutes to prep (find pots and pans and utensils and chop stuff), and then one hour to cook. Everything went smoothly, and to my surprise I was finished with all of the fillings and making the shells with about 15 minutes to spare. I should have waited for about 10 minutes before frying the blintzs, but instead I cooked them, leaving about 10 minutes for them to sit around and cool off (this is not optimal). I plated six of them (two of each type) on a large plate, with a small plate of sour cream in the center, surrounded by six apple slices. The plate looks pretty good.
After explaining the dish and the idea behind it to the three judges, I left the kitchen to let them deliberate. Returning ten minutes later I proceeded to finish cooking the rest of the blintzs... in case other people wanted to try them.
The judges called the teams together and first gave their opinions of our dishes. Overall they thought mine was delicious. The complemented the use of winter/seasonable ingredients, and thought the flavors worked well. They did complain about the cheese only blintz, saying (as I also agree) that it was too plain and it didn't make that much sense (farmers cheese makes a much better filling). They also thought that something a little snazzier than sour cream could have been the sauce to go with these.
But..... they also told me that I had done well enough to advance to the next round!
That entails coming up with a lunch menu by Monday noon, which I will then need to cook next Friday morning. A blessing and a curse.
I purposely did not think much about this lunch menu, but now I'm going to need to do some good thinking. I'll try to post on my ideas at some point this weekend and get some feedback.
5 comments:
SWEET!
Good luck!
Way to go Ivan!
Ho ho ho! That's my boy!!
cool! you should try for something else that's like a modern/seasonal spin on a traditional dish. tell me what you're thinking. did mom have any ideas?
I have a really bold suggestion if you are up to the challenge: Why don't you cook something un-kosher? You could explain that just as Beethoven composed some of his greatest works without ever being able to hear them performed, you too will create your greatest lunch without ever tasting it. The "music" will be only in your head. You will then show that your genius is comparable to Beethoven, and that at least you deserve a chance to make a dinner dish for them.
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