The Top Chef Challenge

Photo by Doctor Leng

I am a huge reality-TV-cooking fan and I have always been curious on how it feels to be a challenger. Every night I always catch reruns of Top Chef, Iron Chef or Chopped. After a while, I influenced Piano man's TV habits and he started watching the shows with me thus, he was even more excited with the idea of holding a cook off challenge with our friends (with the boys being the judges of course).


So the boys made the rules: 3-Course Dinner with each meal having either a secret ingredient or a theme. We were allowed to cook on our own kitchens but the judges should not be aware of what we were making (thanks to Starcraft2, Piano man was pretty much pre-occupied while I was whisking away).


For the appetizer a la Chopped, the ingredients were cheese, green onions and popcorn. 

        Chef A: Risotto Cakes         Chef B: Carnitas Flautas         Chef C: Bacon Cheddar
            w/ Arugula Salad              w/ homemade salsa                         Popcorn

According to the judges, they were all very good. I actually finished maybe half a tray of the bacon cheddar popcorn (you can never go wrong with cheddar and bacon!). The judges' favorite for this round were the risotto cakes because it was the dish with the most creative use of the secret ingredients, plus they taste like hash browns and they love it. 

Moving on to main course a la Iron Chef, the theme was Surf and Turf and after drawing some random numbers we came up with:

    Chef A: Beef and Scallop       Chef B: Lamb and Squid         Chef C: Pork and Shrimp         

And the winner for this round: Beef and scallops! It was well balanced and the meat was cooked very well. This dish also changed the judges' view about broccoli. (FYI: 2 out of 3 of the judges HATE broccoli)

Lastly the dessert round  a la Top Chef. The theme was colorful and angry and this was what we came up with:

  Chef A: Pepper Ice Cream          Chef B: Fruit Tart               Chef C: Spicy Chocolate
   w/ melon and cantaloupe                                                       Brownies w/ berries

I loved the idea that someone actually made ice cream from scratch! The brownies were soft and chewy with a hint of spice which I think was just something awesomely different. The judges' favorite for this round was the fruit tart.

And the grand winner was!!! Chef A :) And I think she did a great job, actually we all did a great job and we had so much fun too (the boys enjoyed it more I assume). Next, BBQ challenge and it's the girls' time to judge!