food network star. episode 4. justin d's recipe.

Before really getting into the episode, I want to first thank everyone for all of the love you have given me. This has been a pretty crazy ride from the moment it started (almost a year ago). Thanks for the continued support.

On to the show! Finally I got to see myself in a camera challenge. For some reason this is the first time they showed my camera challenge, the sad part is.. that food was the worst food I had made to date. Everything else had been fairly successful. To make it even worse, in walks Chef Michael Symon. Shit. Out of all of the Iron Chefs, I connect with his style of cooking the most. It's rustic and similar to my background and training. That dude will throw down on a pig face, which is admirable. So I got to feed Chef Symon something I was pretty ashamed of - I think I used the word "pedestrian" to describe it. I called my dish, Crispix fried ham and black bean puree with a quick pickled jalapeno. I actually thought it tasted good, but it was so uninspired and if there is anything we preach at the Gastronomic Duo, you have to make food with love. Uninspired food is unloved food. I don't think I had ever missed something as much as I missed Lo and Eva at that moment. 

Moving on to the second portion of the show, the Star Challenge. We all know by now what the challenge was, cooking for Cougar Town. I'm on a team with Whitney and Susie and we are the only team of three. Why can't anything ever be normal? Oh that's right, I'm on TV. Our team is to cook for the cast and that means we've gotta keep it light. I decide I'm going to make one of our favorite salads. This is the first time I am going to make something I have made before, everything up to this point has been total on-the-spot first attempts. I need some pretty basic ingredients: Fennel, endive, radicchio, smoked trout and a few greens. "There is no way Courtney Cox and Busy Philipps won't love this," I thought.

We arrive at the store and there is nothing for me. I remember standing in front of the basket that had previously been filled with radicchio and staring at the wilted lone red leaf in the bottom of it. There was also no fennel. How the hell does that happen? We live in Minnesota and I can get fresh fennel bulbs in mid February at any store... but not in LA. So that leaves me with nothing. I have to make a new dish that fits the criteria while shopping for Whitney and Susie as well. That's when the whole quinoa drama began. I challenge anyone to be in that situation and try understanding an excited Susie Jimenez on the phone. Had I used my brain, I would have grabbed tons of quinoa but my brain was filled with other things like, "what the hell am I doing here" and "what am I going to make?"

On the flip side, Susie and Whitney were rock stars and grabbed tons of everything at their store. I really wish I had returned the favor.

I made a dish out of whatever they had grabbed and the few things I had found. It was a terrible salad. It could have been much better, but I haven't done a lot of large party catering.. especially for like 200 people. I dressed my salad early and it just didn't stay on the ingredients like I thought it would. They weren't wrong. It wasn't tasty.

I did think the episode was funny and also honest. That's what happened. From the quinoa to me talking about dropping out, it was all very honest. In those moments I was so filled with doubt and lacked any desire to still be in the competition, that it's amazing I didn't walk out those doors instead of Justin B.

I can't do this post without speaking about Justin Balmes. I didn't know what to think of the other Justin when we first arrived, but after getting to know him.. I can honestly say is a badass. I am proud to call him a friend and excited to work with him in the future.

Lingering on the negative isn't gonna get anyone anywhere.. So I want to also talk about the positive in the show. Being called a sexy Harry Potter chef is pretty hilarious and I've been called much worse. I wonder who I'll be compared to next week? There's only one way to find out. Next week, I need to bring the energy. Let the Harry Potter magic flow.

Below is a link to the recipe for my intended dish. It truly is a tasty salad and one that I am sure everyone would have loved.

Fennel, Endive, Radicchio smoked trout salad with a toasted fennel vinaigrette.

food network star. episode 3. justin d's recipe.

Happy to still be in the competition, this week was really scary for me. I am not big on desserts, I've said a hundred times that dessert for me is a cheese plate and an espresso. It's really rare that I even work with desserts. I knew going into Food Star that there would be some sort of dessert challenge...this was the week I had been dreading.

In the camera challenge I was given Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and tasked with creating a savory dinner in a pinch. At first I was grossed out and offended that we were supposed to use candy to make dinner, as if America needs a reason to ever eat candy for dinner. That thought passed quick enough as the red timer continued to count down. I moved onto thinking about curry and peanut butter and chocolate. So I went for making a peanut butter cup curry sauce with a chicken thigh, green beans, bell peppers and glazed bacon. Needless to say, it didn't impress. I thought the idea was clever, but clearly lacked execution. Imagine that, I wasn't successful at turning candy into dinner. Looking back I think I am proud of that.

The Star Challenge.

Into the star kitchen walk Duff from Ace of Cakes and Chef Robert Irvine from Restaurant Impossible. Now I am officially intimidated. The winner from the camera challenge, Jyll, chose her team quickly. It was to be girls Vs. guys (and Penny) in battle dessert. Looking at our overconfident and squawky competition, us guys (and Penny) saw a line of gals who assumed these "dudes" would have no dessert game. What they didn't expect was that we were about to kick their asses.

Inside the gourmet shop I was having trouble deciding on what dessert I was going to do. I was just blank. I had no idea. Robert said he wanted impossible flavor combinations. I wanted to do something interesting. That's when I decided, corn and basil.. pudding.

We showed up at the Biltmore Hotel ready to cook and ready for adventure. The Biltmore is this cool old hotel in downtown LA and a popualar movie and TV location (Chinatown and Ghostbusters for instance). 

Our team finds the way into the huge kitchen and starts to get to work. I find a perfect little corner and declare to everyone, "This is my house. This is the only place I am going to work today." Everyone else could be anywhere else, but I was going to be in my "house" and they were not. That plan seemed to be working amazingly until I hear Chef Irvine in a loud British accent yell out, "Stop what you are doing. Put your knives down. This kitchen is disgusting." I turn around like a robbery victim in the street and notice the most banged up kitchen I have ever seen. Was this all a result of hurricane Jersey, AKA Chris Nirschel? 

Chef Irvine made the rounds and was impressed at my dish conceptually. He actually said I was the first dish he was interested in. That was pretty amazing.

I get all of my puddings portioned and ready to go, cooling in the walk-in. At this point I am ready to do whatever it takes to get our team ready. We had to get rid of our churro idea, we failed to purchase oil for frying. Super smart! So we had to come up with something else to do as Chris's cakes also failed on every level. I told Chris to use my fennel and orange to make a toasted fennel and orange ice cream. He executed it perfectly and everything came together. We got our display set up and we moved upstairs to serve the guests. The rest is easy to figure out, we crushed the girls. We won the dessert battle. Good luck girls and enjoy standing in front of the judges for the next few hours!

I truly felt bad for Alicia. She really struggled to keep her cool in the kitchen, I swear she had more cupcake batter on her than on the plates. I will leave you with a couple things at the end of this week's recap. 

1 - This competition is so hard. It's physically demanding, mentally demanding, stressful and draining.

2 - Winning feels good.

Along with those thoughts, here is my recipe for corn and basil infused pudding. I am happy to say everyone loved it. I think Susie Fogleson even called it "bad ass" and Duff told me it was the "only thing he wanted to eat." Awesome.