Inside the Kitchen--Cooking Competition

Tonight was the cooking competition, men versus women. On the men's side we had Laurent Manrique and Gerald Hirigoyen and on the women's side, Elizabeth Falkner and Melissa Perello. The competition was set up very much like "Iron Chef" with a secret ingredient and two kitchen. And the secret ingredient? Early guesses included white truffles or brussels sprouts. But it was really:

Princess Peanut Butter!

www.flickr.com

Ok not really but the goat of said name was the "announcer" of the real secret ingredient, goat cheese. Now personally I think there may have been a bit of an advantage to one team in particular given that the some of the judges were French and two of the contestants were French and goat cheese is French.

So who won? The Frenchmen. I wish I could give you the winning recipes but all I have are a scribble of notes. It was something like an appetizer of a duo of scallops, with goat cheese salad, lentils and caper vinaigrette, an entree of Boudin and goat cheese, parmetier, roasted squab au jus and for dessert, roasted pear, honey goat cheese cream, pear salad, lemon jelly and beignet. But don't hold me to it! Most importantly everyone had a really great time, contestants, audience, and even Princess Peanut Butter. Congrats all on a great event and an even greater weekend!

FOOD + INSIDE THE KITCHEN