…in the dessert round, anyway (and to be more accurate, it’s likely CHOCOLATE hazelnut spread – that’s the generic term for Nutella (at least that’s what President’s Choice calls it.  Hershey’s recently launched a line, too, using the same name.  A small brand that I like to use (see image below) calls it Choco-Nut).  Otherwise, it’s just sweetened hazelnut butter).  And I think that was the only good thing about it – the chefs themselves weren’t that great, nor were many of the required ingredients (they could have been creative fairly easily, I think).  Anyway…

A chocolate hazelnut spread the author uses at home

In the first round, the ingredients required were sirloin tips, baguette, mint candies (you know, the ones with the red and white stripes some restaurants still give at the end of meals) and grappa.  At first, I thought that three out of four of the ideas were not too creative – they were, after all, variations of beef on baguette.  Of course, they were a bit different from each other, ranging from a five spice sirloin tip on baguette (where the chef tried to make the PERFECT eggs, even though they weren’t in the ingredients basket – judges criticized him for that) to a honey garlic sirloin tip with a mint candy and grappa reduction (his meat was too over-cooked) and a spiced rub sirloin tip baguette that was presented in a more deconstructed manner (presentation was a bit messy and one judge said she wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to “reconstructed” the plate herself.  It was also fairly messy).  A fourth contestant was a little bit different, making a curried steak salad with a candy grappa vinaigrette, served with a grilled baguette.  However, this difference cost him.  While one judge liked how the contestant brought the cow to the “green pastures,” the dish itself had too many flavours, ranging from the spiciness of the curry and wasabi to the sweetness of the grappa vinaigrette.  He was chopped.

The main course included lady finger bananas, turkey scallopini, pimento stuffed olives and radicchio, a fairly simple list.  One dish was a turkey involenti with an olive tapenade, served with a pickled “purple” (i.e. radicchio) salad on caramel spiced banana.  Judges liked the olives, salad and banana, but did not like the turkey.  Another contestant created turkey scallopini with banana and sweet potato puree.  However, he did not flip his cutting board after chopping turkey, and was criticized for that.  One judge commented that she’d normally not eat it if she knew (but ate it anyway).  Another judge thought that the contestant’s use of yogurt was a little…odd.  The other remaining contestant was also criticized for his contamination issues made a banana glazed turkey and used the olives as a vinaigrette.  His dish was beautiful-looking, but the flavour was everywhere.  Taste was on one end, while presentation was on the other.  This cost him the round.

Now on to dessert!  Besides the (chocolate) hazelnut spread, contestants had to use soba, currants and pink peppercorn.  One chef attempted to make ice cream with the currants, but the machine failed, so he had to move on to “plan B,” which was to serve a dessert pasta (why not?  We have rice pudding!) dish using as a sauce, which did not really incorporate the currants – he really should have double checked to make sure the machine was working properly and creating the ice cream before moving on.  The other remaining contestant made poached pears seasoned with pink peppercorn and soba noodle crisps, served with hazelnut cream.  He definitely made use of all of the ingredients!  Some of the judges, of course loved the creation, though one thought the cream was a little bit on the mushy side.  Because of the failed “plan A” which included a mandatory ingredient, dessert pasta chef was chopped.