Today was the Val Iron Chef competition, which I competed in with two of my good friends, Dan and Caroline (it was supposed to be a team of four, but my friend and our other member, Kristin, couldn't get out of her job in time, so we competed a man down). Dealing with five secret ingredients (black garlic, chayote, caper berries, mussels, and beets), we created a three course menu that was not too shabby: spinach salad with bacon, a fried egg, and a black garlic and red wine vinaigrette; spaghetti with mussels, beet greens sautéed in bacon fat, and caperberries; crepe with cinnamon roasted apple and chayote and peanut butter ice cream. We came in fourth out of six (though I hate being a sore loser, the food of the team that came in third looked eminently inedible, and all of the other teams served cheese on their pasta dishes, all of which incorporated the mussels - I'm pretty sure Italian grandmothers are rolling in their graves right now) and won a $25 gift certificate to Moti, a restaurant in town. Not too shabby!
The highlight of the night, of course, was when I made a quenelle out of our peanut butter ice cream. Jeremy Rousch, Val's executive chef, saw me doing it and was flabbergasted, saying he'd hire me on the spot and asking me where I learned it. My answer of course was: "I had to learn how to do quenelles out of goat cheese this summer when I was a fromagère at Restaurant North in Armonk, NY." Dear North, thanks for giving me street cred.
Now, it's back to writing my Renaissance Drama paper, so that I can return to my thesis afterwards.
Countdown:
6 days
12 hours
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter I Edit
Chapter II Edit
Chapter III Edit
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