Suzy Singh from MasterChef Season 2 writes about her experiences on the show!
June 30, 2011
•Le Cordon Bleu
•Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, General, Las Vegas, Le Cordon Bleu, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Online, Orlando, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Scottsdale, Seattle, St. Louis
• 0 Comments
So there were only 15 of us left and we have our second mystery box challenge. The ingredients that we have in front of us are both sweet and savory. We have only 60 minutes and I guessed that everyone would use lamb as their main ingredient on the dish. I wanted to take a risk and make the romanesco cauliflower the main ingredient. So I ended up making a curried risotto with savory cauliflower. I just wanted tohave some fun in the kitchen!!!!
Notables in this challenge: Tracy was able to use the lamb in a beautiful technique by searing the lamb chop individually with feta cheese and fresh herb- it looked delicious! My ultimate favorite in this challenge definitely goes to my friend Adrian. The plate looked the most restaurant ready- boy did it taste good! He was able to test the cookery of lamb before presenting it to the judges- very smart, if you have the time...preserve the integrity of the dish. In the end he ends up winning and has a huge advantage in the next round: picking his signature ingredient in the next round as well as our signature ingredient.
I have to say that Adrian was super kind to us by choosing coffee as our signature dessert ingredient and various nuts as his. Coffee and dessert go hand in hand; coffee and chocolate are a very natural pairing. I ended up creating a trio of expresso, coffee infused chocolate brownie, and coffee truffles sitting on top of coffee infused swiss buttercream- yum! Chef Bowels (Graham Elliot) said that the brownie was yummy and might have a shot in the top 2! Today Alvin used chemicals to alter the texture of his cuisine, also known as molecular gastronomy. Despite how things turned out for him today, I think that he embodies "smart cooking" (by the way, I love molecular gastronomy and use it quite a bit in my cuisine.) Major congratulations to Tracy and Esther for the top 2 desserts!! I'm so excited to see what gets shown in today's challenge!