Tagged: thursdays

top chef canada week 12

Missed last week, I was sitting here, fingers poised, all set to go, when two fighting raccoons, a luna moth, and my two newfs spoiled that plan. I’ll spare the details, but suffice to say it took me away for a bit. and I only like to recap live, so…
francois went home :(
morning comes and a limo awaits the cheftestants! They get to 1 (mm’s resto) and are joined by mm at a table. We’re just going to have breakfast, he says. hmmm…..

casual conversation ensues. mm is telling them about his restaurant and describing the format–family style but sounds like elegant family style, as opposed to a typical family dinner involving sibling squabbling, toddler tantrums and frozen dinners.
the final 4 head back to the kitchen, dressed for battle. and the guest judge is gail simmons!  I did not know she was canadian, I feel like I should have known that.
she introduces the challenge–they are making dinner out of a movie!  they need to make it ou of a well known canadian movie!
Dale pulls ginger snaps, connie gets naked lunch, rob gets bon cop, bad cop, and dustin draws my big fat greek wedding. (naked lunch makes me want to throw up, I can’t believe that it is part of a food challenge. but I can because how many well known cdn movies are there?
all the dishes seem well received, gail dishes out the love, and the winner is a commercial! for top chef canada, which we are already watching (!?) oh it’s an ad for a tcc marathon.
winner is actually dale, who is happy to win his second qf challenge (he won the very first one).

elimination challenge: the cheftestants will be creating a menu for a dinner party mm will be having with friends. each cook will be doing three courses. the pantry is stocked with some of mm fave foods. winner will get a spot in the finale as well as 5K$–we haven’t seen too many of these high stakes type challenges, maybe in subsequent seasons.
Dale gets a 5 minute head start to the pantry!  He seems unusually subdued this week, humble even.
Connie’s putting pressure on herself because this simple, family style cooking is right in her wheelhouse–this does not bode well, we’ll see how it plays out. Dustin and Dale are roomies, and have developed a little bromance (says Dustin); so that’s why Dale is so nice this week, Dustin’s having an influence on him.
Back in the kitchen where a lot of time is spent listening to Connie beat herself up over last week. And everyone talking about how much it would mean to win and the money and the kitchen and their families blah blah blah.
Gail, David Lee, Jacob Richler, Amy Verner, and the regulars.  First courses come out too fast for me to type the details. Comments: Dale’s seafood platter is clumsy, heavy, overpowering. Rob’s foie gras is lacking acidity, two ingredients are not talking. Connie’s dish is fresh, simple and beautiful. Dustin’s pasta-not constructed well.
Mains oh NO, disaster!  Connie’s chicken is raw and she has to dump it into the fryer.
Rob goes on about “Texan” chefs, apparently some term that must be big in his chef circle. It’s a bad thing, and Connie is “Texan”.
Main course judging:

Rob’s perch/beautiful/nice pairing/well received
Dustin’s lake trout/not great technique/fennel too soft/not so good
Dale’s diver scallops/underwhelming in look and flavour
Connie’s lemon roasted (deep fried) chicken/bit overcooked (ironic)/salty skin/papery
mm puts d & d in the bottom by saying they’re not cooking like chefs for this course

Dustin’s roasted fruit salad/MISS
Connie’s dark chocolate tart/spectacular colour, tasty/HIT!!
Rob’s braised lamb neck/HIT!
Dale’s rib eye/steak blah, vegetables okay/MISS

Looks like Dustin and Dale are not so good. My prediction was that Dustin would not make it to the top 3, and it still is. Rob for the win of this challenge.
Judges Table: Rob indeed won!  He’s been kind of creeping up all season and is hitting his peak at the right time, he’s like an athlete before an important race/match/game/meet.
Next into the finale? Connie!  Good for her!  She’s crying because she really beat herself up over the chicken. The beet and homemade cheese salad, and the chocolate tart saved her.
Down to D & D–and the judges send them away so they can debate further. Annnnndddd man they are really draaaaggggggginnnnnnnggggggg this ouuuuuuuuuuuuut.
Decide already!
And it’s Dustin, who keeps smiling as he bids farewell. Bye Dustin!  He’s just such a nice boy.
Next week is the finale!   Apparently, Dale is cheating, so there’s that hint of scandal to look forward to. See you here!

critic on the critics thursdays

Where to get ice cream is the foodie feature in the Coast. I already have a spot so I turn to HeraldSpurr, who trumpets the goodness of the Lower Deck. I haven’t been back to the Lower Deck since I almost died from being trapped on the stickiness of the bathroom floors, after spending a raucous evening shouting about some Privateers and being the last of.
Spurr mentions the homemade blueberry grunt and writes “which further proved my theory that you can throw around terms like cobbler, crisp, brown Betty and grunt without fear of correction”. Be afraid Bill!  I’m going to put the fear of the cobbler into ya!
There is indeed a difference in all of these things:
brown betty–fruit pudding topped with bread crumbs
cobbler–fruit pudding topped with biscuit dough
grunt–stewed fruit topped with biscuit dough
crisp–baked fruit topped with oatmeal/brown sugar mixture
It’s really all in the topping. Here in Atlantic Canada, we tend to use cobbler/grunt interchangeably; except for the technicality of how the fruit is prepared, they are practically the same thing.  Brown betties are American creations, rarely seen in these parts in it’s true form.
Crisp is, well, crispy on top. The brown sugar/butter/oatmeal mixture that tops the fruit is almost like a struesel topping–crisp (well, d’uh).
My sister used to make the best apple crisp ever, until she tried to make it for her (then new) boyfriend and it was not so best. He’s a straight shooter and made no effort to hide his feelings about it. They’re still together but alas, the apple crisp magic is gone.
If anyone has a fabulous apple crisp recipe they’d like to share, I’d love to hear it!

top chef canada week week 10

An alarm goes off and cheftestants wake up. Lots of morning interviews. Connie feels terrible for being on the bottom last week. You know, is there really absolutely nothing new to be said in these interviews?
Guest judge is Lynn Crawford and the in flight team from Porter Airlines!  Airplane food!  How can you not do well in a QF that involves making better airline food?  They have to make morning and afternoon meals. Crawford tells them to be creative!  Do something different! (Apparently, there is nothing new for guest judges to say either)
Something’s burning!  Rob actually likes airline food!  I worry about his palate.
Lots of good stuff being cooked involving smoked this and tuna that. Of course Dale has flown more than anyone–11 times to New York in a year!  Well then.
Judging and there are some really good looking meals here-I doubt we’ll ever see them on any airline (except Lufthansa where the food is good but it might have been just how tired I was and how long the flight was but hey)
Chef Lynn, as Thea calls her, does not like Dustin. He had smoked trout for bfast, too strong. She did not like Andrea’s either–her lunch salmon was too dry.
She really liked Rob’s, he had a chocolate pudding. And she loved Dale’s breakfast, which looks like apple pie. But SURPRISE!  She LOVED Connie’s granola and CONNIE WINS!  Good for her, she looks genuinely shocked. Her prize?  A trip to Chicago for her and a guest to have a culinary adventure. I’m going to Chicago in September, I am hoping for a culinary adventure too. I didn’t win the trip though (it would have been nice).
The EC involves drawing knives. Three meals that involve a day in the life of Canadian food, and they are drawing the knives for a region.
Connie–La Belle Province (she’s lost)
Rob–Ontario (he’s from there)
Dale-Interior BC (he’s from there)
Andrea–Prairies (she’s lost and can only think of ‘flat’)
Francois–Maritimes (he’s been working in BC so happy to work with seafood)
Dustin-Wild Rose Country Alberta (he’s cool and happy he didn’t get the Yukon)

Really?  These are the regions of Canada? What about Newfoundland? (It’s an Atlantic province, not a maritime one) What about the territories?  Oh, Connie–she did not know where La Belle Province was, Francois assures her it’s Quebec.
Shopping!
This should be good.
As we go to commercial, Andrea is calling down Connie for buying a pie shell for tortiere–Andrea says she wouldn’t do it because she “would feel like a douchebag”. That’s an appetizing word Andrea, Connie has the prepared food but your dish will be associated with the word Douchebag. Good thing I’m not a judge and listening to that. I don’t think I can root for you anymore–you sisters should stick together!  Boo Andrea!
They can do breakfast, lunch, dinner or lunch, dinner, dessert. They only have 3 hours, which Andrea thinks is not possible. She hasn’t been to the Prairies and is going to put Toronto into it. Hmmm…methinks the word “douchebag” may have been misdirected. She’s traveled to parts of Egypt that no-one’s heard of, but hasn’t been to the prairies.
Oh, now she’s making fun of Dale, who has to “drop food bombs on everyone” (ha!) She’s back in the good books as it’s Dale turn to reclaim the douchebag hat as he runs down everyone else.
Lots of beeps as the temperature rises and swearing goes wild.
Judging begins! Jonathan Gushue of Langdon Hall is a guest judge–he’s from St. John’s, let’s hear it for the home boy!

Dustin pulls out breakfast bison and quail eggs (good) beef stew (not so good) cornish hen (gets the dreaded banquet hall moniker)

Francois bfast brandade with quail & lobster (nope) /seafood salad lunch (really nope) /chowder supper (confused, too many products, not really east coast)

Andrea bison soup/rib eye/berry crumble (greasy, bitter, not reading prairies, she’s pretty much trashed)

Dale bfast egg (a hit!) /roast salmon (pure, delicious, smart, perfect) /venison loin and bannock (venison lacking flavour, all else fabulous)

Connie smoked trout salad (hit!) /traditional tourtiere (flavour good, but more like pot pie) /blueberry pie (delicious, but oh dear they love the pie crust and she’s gonna get busted)

Rob ham corn chowder (confused) /pickerel (gorgeous) /fresh fruit and sabayon (uh-oh, it’s classed as an afterthought)

Judges Table (it’s going to get ugly!)
My prediction: Dale for the win
Going home?  Andrea edges out Francois for that dubious honor, but if the great pie crust scandal erupts, it could be Connie.

Stew room. Nobody’s saying much.  Dale and Connie are called in first, so I guess they are safe. They are the top, and to Connie’s credit, she fesses up to the crust and nobody’s hard on her. Oh, I forgot they did not like Dale’s venison.
And the winner is Connie!  Oh, my. That’s going to cause much mean comment backstage.

Francois and Andrea are up, as expected, as the bottom 2.
And Andrea takes a dig at Connie at the table, and the judges are unimpressed.
She looks very angry.  Francois missed the east coast spirit.
They go back to stew. And Andrea is still slagging on the store bought crust, even though all of her food was bad. Andrea, you officially are out of my good books. Take that, mean girl!
And the task of packing their knives goes to  Andrea. Called it! She’s not too sour. Oh, there’s some fun going on, she tells Connie she’d better “win this”. Good on you, mean girl.
Next week:  Street food! Dale’s having a breakdown and Connie’s making sausage. Why Connie, why?

critic on the critics thursdays

HeraldSpurr reviews a golf club restaurant–c’mon Bill, how many of your readers will eat there?  You’re not getting lazy are you? Whilst over at the Coast, Craig Pinhey writes about Canada’s antiquated border booze laws that restrict consumer choice and put us at the whim of the NSLC.
Which kind of fits right in with Halifax, in general. I live here because I must, but as I get older and crankier, I have less and less patience with the small town mentality that’s so rampant (especially in the mayoral office, currently).
I moved here from Newfoundland years ago; all starry eyed and full of excitement about moving to a “mainland city”. After all, the closer you are to Toronto, the more progressive and advanced the city, right? And there was nowhere more east than NL, so surely moving anywhere to the west would bring one closer to a more  cosmopolitan culture, right?
Yeah, not so much. When I moved here, you couldn’t shop on Sunday–or on Monday, Tuesday and Saturday nights (unless you headed over the bridge to Dartmouth).  No beer in the corner stores, and good luck finding an open gas station on Sunday. More confusing was the inability to get both a beer and a mixed drink at most drinking establishments, and the early hour at which everything downtown closed.
But one area in which Halifax has managed to excel has been in the fantastic culinary culture. Nothing small town about the array of restaurants and the global tastes the city offers; we do all right for a city this size. Without thinking too hard, I can come up with Indian, Iranian, Italian (the “I’s” have it). South Asia is well represented with Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Japanese and of course Chinese. Greek, Mexican, Turkish. Ethiopian. And so it goes.
So while the liquor regulations are archaic, at least we have freedom of food!

 

top chef canada week 9

Roger Mooking (silliest name ever for a chef) is the guest judge for the quickfire, which is to create a dish based on a specific number of ingredients. They draw knifes, numbers ranging from 4-16. Salt, pepper and oil are freebies. The winner gets an unlimited budget for shopping for the elimination challenge (I’d buy all of my groceries for the next year. There’s probably a rule about that though).
Rob has to use 16 ingredients!  That’s a lot. Darryl can only use 4!  That’s  not a lot. Connie’s making pasta from scratch to get herself noticed. She has ten. Dustin has 8. Nobody cares how many Dale has, but he just dropped his mussels on the floor. Ha, ha Dale!  Feel my scorn from here!

Time’s up and tasting starts. Not so good: Dale, his saffron was overpowering. Dale disagrees. (Of course he does)
Standout?  Andrea’s soup and Connie’s pasta!  Yeah ladies!  And the winner is  ME, because I finally got this mosquito that’s been lazily drifting around my elbow for the past hour, just waiting to feast. Okay, the real winner is Andrea!  Awesome. She hadn’t won a QF yet, so this is good for her.
On to the elimination challenge, which is the biggest product placement aside from the appliances–they must use president’s choice products, up to 5, to create a dish that they will present to home cooks at the supermarket tomorrow.
20 minutes and 50 bucks for shopping, but more money for Andrea. But 20 minutes, how much shopping?  Oh, Andrea is buying black cod, which is expensive, to use her money to it’s best advantage she says.
The middle part is all about chatting up the PC products, so I’m going to watch the Dexter rerun on another channel and come back for the judging. Chat amongst yourselves.
Dale–pulled pork bbq sandwich (begrudgingly, this looks like a great idea and the judges like it)
Andrea–Asian style black cod (nice undertones but no bam, but goes over well w/judges)
Connie–Foie gras sausages in puff pastry (I don’t think it’s a good idea but Connie loves her sausages! Judges, no go. One note.)
Francois–confit of chicken thigh in phyllo (Delicious!  They love it!)
Apparently, Connie and Francois didn’t consider the home cook.  I think both these are complicated>

Darryl– manicotti (looks like buffet food!  But accessible. Judges think his story is better than his product. amateurish)
Dustin–Gnudi (pasta)    love it!

Rob–maple syrup pudding with caramelized bananas, redemption dessert for flopping in RW!  People love it. (Judges–looks adorable! Tastes fantastic!)

I’m calling it. Connie really sunk here.

Francois, Dale and Rob are top!  And deservedly so, even Dale. Because that sandwich looked awesomely awesome.
And the winner is Dale. Hope he’s not a douche about it.   And he wins 5K in gift cards from Loblaws!

Darryl and Connie are, predictably, bottom.  Connie is crying. Stop that Connie!  Stop crying! That’s for girls and sissy boys. Although the judges are really ragging on her.
She blows her nose and pulls it together. She’s embarrassed and interviews that she just wanted to be a strong female role model. And you know what Connie?  You ARE.
Oh, the way the judges are now talking, sounds like Darryl might be out. But I’m sticking with Connie.
Pack your knives, Darryl!  That’s a surprise. But he’s a classy, classy guy–probably the best exit ever on a reality show. Bye Darryl!  We’ll miss you! And your adorably spiky hair!

 

critic on the critics thursdays-part deux

This week, CoastHill does the requisite summer roundup of street food with Bud the Spud starring, and HeraldSpurr goes Vietnamese with Indochine Bahn mi. Meh. (crickets chirping here). Although Spurr does go on the offensive and cuts off the typical response that comes with any ethnic resto review–somebody will write in to let you know that the restaurant cannot possibly be as good as the real they ate when they went to its culinary homeland.
I always wanted to answer by using words of wisdom from an old Norwegian chef I once knew. He said “Don’t forget there are just as many truckstops in Europe as there is in Canada”.  His point? That just because it’s authentic, doesn’t mean it’s good. I’ve had poorly cooked pasta in Milan, and a horrible baguette in Paris.  Just sayin’.

critic on the critics thursdays-last week

I missed posting last week but got a few interesting questions so I’m going to revisit.
CoastBuote hit the Humani T cafe, with mixed results. I find it interesting that it appears from the article that she only made one trip. I never wrote anything negative unless I had visited a place at least twice, because I believe that anyone can have a bad day. On the other hand, it speaks to the importance of consistency to an eatery–you never do know who’s eating what you’re making.
Unless, apparently, you are HeraldSpurr. He revisited Cocoa Pesto Bistro in Windsor, again. Which brings me to a reader comment. Spurr is a features writer for the Herald, and didn’t start as the food critic, and so is not always going to be anonymous. In the years that I reviewed, I was only made twice, to my knowledge, and both were because former coworkers turned out to be my servers. So how does this affect the reviewer’s experience?  Well, to be sure, the service will probably be more attentive, and anything in the kitchen prepared a la minute might even be better. My philosophy was to ensure that I ordered something that involved pre-preparation. Something that had to be made well before dinner service (for example, a slow braised dish) so that there was no way for the kitchen to dress it up just for me.  And I very rarely reviewed places where I knew the chef really well, and certainly not more than once. But all critics have their own styles, and in a town as small as Halifax (indeed, a province as small as NS) it’s hard to be completely incognito.