While the weather was absolute crap today I did venture out for lunch. Normally, I would just stay inside and eat (gross-ish) basement cafe food but there are times that getting your feet soaked (because you wore sandals- let’s blame it on not being able to find anything in the move & not because you are moronic & stubborn, shall we) and have a fun lunch hour.
Well I spent my lunch hour at the Top Chef Tour!! My scrapbooking buddy Emily invited me and I jumped at the chance to do something fun. It should be noted that I have never ever seen a second of Top Chef prior to my trip to visit Amanda. So I don’t know the history, drama, or winners of the seasons but it was so much fun regardless of my cluelessness. <- let’s pretend that is a word
The chefs having involved in the tour at this stop were Tiffani Faison and Hosea Rosenberg. I knew of Tiffani (Seasons 1 & 8) because she was the hometown competitor. Also she opened a restaurant late last year called Sweet Cheeks Q by Fenway park and I have heard a lot of great things about it. While Hosea was the winner of Season 5, he was a new face too me.
NOM NOM NOM!!!
The chefs each had to create a dish using clams. They had 10 ingredients to choose from (I wish I remembered them- sorry!) to use as well as having a wild card ingredient to select. They were limited to 12 minutes as well! Umm I can’t even boil water in that time!!
Tiffani prepared her clam with peas, asparagus, and leaks with a clam broth. The clam was topped with a foam that she created with soy lecithin, which was her wildcard ingredient. Her dish was very clean, flavorful, and let the ingredients speak for themselves.
Hosea used a ‘fancy’ white bread as his wild card ingredient, which he used as a base for a polenta crusted fried clam. There was a sauce and slaw on top of the clam. It reminded me a dressed up clam roll.
My favorite was Hosea’s dish because of the texture, flavors, and it I am a sucker for a great sauce.
After they cooked they answered audience questions about the show including judging, competitions, and canoodling with other competitors. They shared stories and it was a lot of fun. It was really refreshing that they were to laid back and really honest about their experiences.
Prior to the start of the cooking competition, Chef Jasper White of Summer Shack fame and two selected audience members to judge the food the competitors would make. They sat between the 2 cooking stations. They tried the food that they chefs prepared right there while the rest of the audience was provided with food that was made behind the scenes. They selected a winner… Hosea!
The tour is still in Boston tomorrow so be sure to swing by Fanieul Hall to see if you can get a walk-in spot! Have fun!!
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