Thursday, December 18, 2008

Top Chef: Catching Up

Last week's Top Chef made some pretty serious gaffs, the most egregious of them Fabio's knowledge of the color wheel. Listen to me, and listen to me closely: Fabio. is. not. charming. A few years ago, B and T discovered that my impersonation of an Italian accent insinuates that I think Italians are borderline pedophiles, and, of course, I've stubbornly stood my ground. Unbeknownst to them (until now, I assume), I really did think it's a ridiculous impersonation, but NOW (!) I feel absolutely vindicated by Sir Fabio.

In all seriousness, last week Fabio's team was assigned 'blue' in the Gail-Simmons-Bridal-Shower challenge and, instead of stretching his imagination to sea-inspired foodstuffs, he chose to pervert the idea of a color wheel. Apparently, green swiss chard plus yellow corn puree equals blue. Here's a picture of a color wheel, in case we don't remember our primary school lessons. Blue is a primary color. Green plus yellow make yellow-green. Discuss.

It's no secret that I hate Fabio, but what I hate more is how women act around him on the show. First of all, a woman's bridal shower is not the 'most important meal' of her life--a little more perspective, please? Usually, women are eating this meal with absurd ribbons and bows plastered embarrassingly to her head, so clearly any matter of taste has already been discarded with yesterday's rubbish. Second, the giggling at Fabio's accent and (again!) 'charm' makes me want to punch every one of them in their ovaries. Swooning at an Italian accent?--talk about cliches.

But he's fading, and, apparently, so is the charm. I guess women only like successful Italians.
Ariane's the new star because she knows how to cook a piece of meat damn well. The Thanksgiving turkey, last week's lamb, and last night's quickfire beef. I'm not going to slam her for the simplicity of cooking a piece of meat well, but shouldn't cooking meat well be considered a given at their stage? I think that the accompaniments have been more interesting in each case, and have been thinking about cauliflower puree ever since last night's episode. I decided to whip some up for dinner tonight and it was really delish, so here's the recipe:

Cauliflower Puree
  • 1 head of cauliflower, roughly chopped into florets
  • 3 shallots, chopped finely
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 large green chili, minced
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 potatoes
  • 1 cup low-sodium chicken stock
  • 3 tbsp sour cream
  • 2-3 scallions



Saute the shallots, garlic, and chili in the butter until shallots appear clear. In the meantime, boil the chopped potatoes in some water. Add the cauliflower and chicken stock to the shallots' mixture, bring to a boil over high heat and then lower to a simmer until cauliflower is very tender (about 10-15 minutes). After potatoes are nice and tender as well, drain them from their water and add to the tender cauliflower. At this point, take it off of the heat, add salt and pepper to taste, as well as the sour cream. Mash with a potato masher, or add the ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth. Sprinkle with diced scallions for garnish.

1 comment:

MaggieB said...

Love cauliflower puree.

Hate Fabio.

Thanks,

Maggie
EatBoutique.com