I have never seen this happen before – a chef NOT being able to plate anything for the judges! One of the contestants, “freaked out” towards the end with what he made, and presented a plate with nothing but garnish. He had intended to make a passion fruit crepe (mandatory ingredients were nutmeg, biscuit mix, Merguez sausage and passion fruit) at first, but something went horribly wrong. He did have SOMETHING made and really should have served it, no matter how bad it turned out. It was pretty obvious who was getting chopped. As for the other contestants, one made a passion fruit pancake with sausage (to which he used the nutmeg and also threw in ginger). He had mixed reaction from the judges. One thought the sausage was too dry, another criticized him for taking it out of the casing and a third thought the nutmeg was too strong. Another made a salad with grilled sausage and pickled vegetables, using the passion fruit to make a vinaigrette while the fourth made a sausage fritter with a passion fruit and red wine sauce (interesting here: one judge claimed he didn’t taste the nutmeg, while another thought it was very strong).
Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichoke
In the second round, the mandatory ingredients were salt cod, miso paste, lemon balm and sunchoke. One contestant made a seared salt cod with sunchoke hash and miso beurre blanc. He also added hot sauce on the side as a garnish, which was a turn off for one of the judges (it was put on the side for that very reason – so that those who do not like hot sauce wouldn’t have to have it). Other judge reactions included criticizing the undercooked sunchoke and the fact that the dish was a bit “disjointed,” while at the same time, liking how the miso and mushroom paired well. Another chef stuffed the cod into shrimp and poached the sunchoke. This was paired with some sous-vide asparagus. However, he was criticized for making a too-salty dish as the miso glaze was very concentrated. The remaining chef was another disaster. He over-processed the food and the salt cod stew with sun choke and lemon balm cream appeared more like a chowder, which the judges criticized (to be fair, one judge liked how the lemon balm was picked up by the lemon oil drizzle). It was pretty obvious he was going to go.
Butter tarts are a Canadian pastry
In the dessert round, the remaining two contestants had to use taro, uni, butter tarts and rosemary. The interesting thing about one of the ingredients – taro – is that it is toxic raw, so the two finalists had to cook it very carefully in order for it to be edible. One decided to make cinnamon butter tart semi freddo with uni and strawberry puree, combined with creamed taro and rosemary. There was also an almond brittle. One of the judges liked the “deconstructed” look of the dish, while another thought the puree was a bit too “gritty.” On the other hand, the remaining finalist had some problems with his dish. He had meant to make a butter tart and rosemary ice cream with taro fruit salad and carmelized uni, bu ice cream ended up being “soft serve,” which he was criticized for. The judges did not like the fruit salad, as taro was undercooked (is toxic, as noted earlier), so I was actually surprised that he was made the winner rather than the other contestant!
Images via Wiki Commons (second image credit: By Hisakazu Watanabe (Flickr: Pecan Butter Tart) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons)
