If We Were on Top Chef...Al Dente Editors Cook Up Their Vices
by Kitchen Maus
on August 20, 2009
If you caught the season six opener of Top Chef last night, you witnessed the competitors' vices plated and on display. Alcohol, hot tempers (sort of), procrastination, and bacon (of course) all danced before the judges. Never ones just to sit back and watch, the Al Dente editors got together today to discuss their own vices and the dishes they'd dream up to wow the judges.
- Spanno's vices: alcohol, raw meat
- Dish: Sweet and Spicy Drunken Kobe Cheese Steak Sashimi: A Philly cheese steak made with raw Kobe beef slices drenched in a beer-cheese sauce and topped with a mix of sweet and hot peppers
- Brad Thomas Parsons's vices: bourbon, ice cream, pork, fried food
- Dish: Deep-Fried Vanilla-Malt Ice Cream with Bacon Brittle
and a Bourbon-Salted-Caramel Sauce and a chaser of Pappy Van Winkle’s 15-Year
Family Reserve
- Dish: Deep-Fried Vanilla-Malt Ice Cream with Bacon Brittle
and a Bourbon-Salted-Caramel Sauce and a chaser of Pappy Van Winkle’s 15-Year
Family Reserve
- A.J. Rathbun's vice: being entertained by having too much going on at once
- Dish: 100-ingredient mole over veggie-and-cheese stuffed rellenos with a side of saffron-infused Spanish rice topped with a jicama salsa
- KitchenMaus's vices: sweets, particularly chocolate; salt; unusual ingredients
- Dish: A sundae of deep dark chocolate brownie with fleur-de-sel caramel ice cream, liquid ganache (poured on top after serving), candied rosemary, and brown-sugar-glazed salted cashews
- Amanda Luthy's vice: being temperamental
- Dish: Garlicky quinoa with grilled lemon-cilantro eggplant, cherry tomatoes, shallots, and pine nuts
- Monsieur Hulot's vice: all things Mad Men
- Dish: Prime rib with Stilton, with a side of brandy-infused mashed potatoes and a Nat Sherman real-mint cigarette for dessert
Vote for the winning dish by adding a comment! Or, comment on your own vice and the dish you'd serve.
--KitchenMaus
Em on August 21, 2009 at 06:24 AM
Yum, I just want to get to judge so I can sample all of these dishes.
Mike Gebert on August 21, 2009 at 04:34 PM
The secrets of losing on Top Chef are fairly easy: make something complicated that you don't really know how to make. I'm amazed at people who make something that needs to freeze when freezing almost never happens in time, who take up Burmese food for the first time in competition, who plan for 200 oysters with no sense of how long they will take to shuck, and so on. The winners almost always have the quiet confidence of cooking what they know; even if they're outside their area of expertise (eg Bayless making Italian) they know how to build flavors and use ingredients and can adapt to other flavors.
Oh, and don't be cocky; the editors LOVE the story of the cocky guy who goes down and can't figure out why (Spike, Jeff, etc.) They will make you look like the biggest jerk in America...
BlogDog on August 21, 2009 at 05:12 PM
Having watched the Top Chef Masters competitin with great interest, I have to say that Rick Bayless is a culinary god! I'm not devoted to Mexican food but watching his almost effortless way with flavor and concept was amazing. Hubert Keller and Michael Chiarello were magnificent but Bayless was beyond belief. It is now a necessity that I eat at Frontera.
I hope he gets the chance to guest judge in this year's competitiion.
R. Hunter Oates on August 21, 2009 at 06:46 PM
My vote goes to Monsieur Hulot's because I just had dinner, but after reading that dish, I'm hungry again.
My vice dish? Vices: Bourbon, Gin, Bacon and Fad O' The Week Cooking Trends.
Bacon-wrapped Scallops with a Bourbon Glaze......and a Deconstructed Martini (A shot of iced gin w/ a vermouth chaser + muddled olive)
console xbox 360 on September 28, 2009 at 09:58 PM
I dont get Bravo channel but have occasionally seen Top Chef elsewhere. I have waited for Top Chef to be released in dvd forever and I am THRILLED to get even one season of the show!! I hope seasons 1-4 get released ASAP.
I would LOVE to know why it's taken so long and why they've released out of sequence.
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