National food writer, Deborah A. Rankine, has covered the food scene in Canada for the past 15 years. As her alter ego, “Chef Deb,” Rankine captains the catering kitchen at
http://www.culinarycaravan.com/. Her culinary world travels provide inspiration for her ethnic-themed cooking classes she teaches at professional cooking schools throughout Toronto’s GTA and beyond. Chef Deb was brave enough to compete in round 9 of the Discovered Culinary Competition, and talented enough to write this fabulous article about it. Find out more about Deb Rankine at
http://www.thefridgewhisperer.com/.
It was with good reason I didn’t tell many about my sojourn into Iron Chefland last Monday night at Toronto’s
Nella Cucina. I knew I’d be out of the running after the first round.
I wasn’t wrong.
Four chefs, three timed black box challenges, one round-9 winner moved forward to the semi-finals/finals at the Discovered Culinary Competition being held during the
CRFA Show, March 4 – 6, 2012 at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto.
Chef Bruno Elsier — executive chef at the Toronto French School — won the night
(see Chef in action). And rightly so. This guy was firing on all cylinders. I should know, I shared a station with him.
A force to be reckoned with in front of and behind the line, Elsier moved through each course with practiced finesse, hardly breaking a sweat, his plates dressed, wiped and ready for the judges with minutes to spare. It was an honour to meet him and a joy to watch the judges critique his beautifully presented, multi-flavoured dishes.
The four-month-long Discovered Culinary Competition aims to bring out the best of Canada’s yet-to-be-discovered culinary phenoms; the payday for the winner, an all-expenses-paid trip to Spain for a week’s worth of cooking at a Michelin-star restaurant.
In addition to Chef Elsier, I had the pleasure of cooking with Claudio Giganti, chef/owner of Giganti Event Planning and Catering in Grimsby, and the oh-so-lovely and generous Jorge Delarosa, first cook at
Torito Tapas Bar in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighbourhood.
Monday night’s judging panel consisted of Hogtown’s best: chef Matt Blondin from
Acadia; executive chef Daniel Mezzolo from
Gusto 101; and executive chef Luca Stracquadanio, executive chef at
La Bettola di Terroni/Osteria Ciceri e Tria.
The black box of mystery ingredients for the starter round comprised raw, shell-on shrimp, dried kaffir lime leaves, Roma tomatoes and, of all things, corn chips. As I searched the pantry for other flavours to marry with the must-use ingredients I changed my mind five times. And lost valuable minutes. I spied a tub of Thai green curry paste and the decision was made.
The
only good decision I made about that dish.
Surely the culinary gods know why I chose heavy cream and butter in favour of coconut milk and fish sauce to go with the dried rice vermicelli I used at the base for this appetizer. All I do know is that I was totally out of my element.
And that makes total sense.
Last Monday night I was the
Rachel Ray in a sea of
Iron Chefs. All these guys worked the line day in and day out. And then there’s me, your humble neighbourhood Fridge Whisperer, in her little homey test kitchen working out sixth-draft kinks to perfect one recipe. No sweat, no elevated blood pressure. Just me, humming away in my happy place.
I was so relived when they lifted the lid to reveal my pitiful-looking plate. Three sad little Thai curried pan-fried shrimps wobbling atop a mass of over-cooked, over-sauced rice noodles, apexed with brown butter corn chip breadcrumbs.
The judges were too kind in their critique of my dish. All agreed that the shrimp were perfectly cooked but that I should have done the whole thing as a cold starter. Too right they were! And I would have come to that conclusion on my own, in my own test kitchen, likely by the fourth or fifth draft of the recipe.
It’s easy to decide what to make from the black box ingredients when you’re sitting in the audience with a cold beer in your hand. And I was for the second round; lamb chops, niçoise olives, Israeli couscous and eggplant.
MOROCCAN! I screamed inside my head; I’d spied a jar of preserved lemons in the pantry.
I try to channel my inner thoughts Jorge’s way,
MAKE A KILLER LAMB TAJINE! THEY’VE GOT PRESERVED LEMONS! GO-TO-THE-PANTRY!
Apparently my telepathic skill set is on par with my timed creative whimsy. The preserved lemons went untouched by all the chefs.
I know! When the pressure’s off it’s so easy to come up with the most perfect recipe.
Alas, my darling Jorge was eliminated though I thought his plate looked stunning.
Chef Elsier’s offering was magnificent, of course. As he told me previously, this wasn’t his first rodeo. He competes in cooking competitions a few times every year. For the fun of it!
Elsier’s passion for food and cooking comes through on the plate, his garlic-rosemary infused grilled lamb chops set atop fennel studded couscous, grilled eggplant, roasted tomatoes and panned-to-perfection mushrooms a symphony of colour and, no doubt, flavour. A flourish of julienne niçoise to finish.
With the third round, dessert, Elsier won the night, his balsamic-basil macerated sliced strawberry tower set gently on a pillow of soft pastry cream fashioned using mascarpone, vanilla and buttermilk wowed all three judges. Bravo, Chef Elsier!
To give you an idea of the caliber of talent that came before, here’s the list of winners from previous Discovered Culinary Competition rounds:
Round 1: Chef Arron Carley of Volos restaurant, Toronto
Round 2: Chef Trish Gill of Beast restaurant, Toronto
Round 3: Chef William Tolentino of Celestin restaurant, Toronto
Round 4: Chef John Koplimae of the Drake Hotel, Toronto
Round 5: Chef Alejandro Winzer of Ristorante Verdicchio, Sudbury
Round 6: Chef Glenn Sheridan of Le Bon Marché, North Bay
Round 7: Chef George Tyminski of Annona restaurant, Park Hyatt Hotel, Toronto
Round 8: Chef Mitchell Lamb of Stone House in Burlington and the Lake House in Vineland,
For me? I’m thrilled to have been given the opportunity to compete.
I’m equally thrilled to continue to be Hogtown’s own Rachel Ray.
