By Emma Murphy, contributing writer
Tonight, Dean & DeLuca’s 5 executive chefs from across the country will come together in New York City to battle in a high-stakes Iron Chef-style competition.
Here’s how the competition will play out… Dean & DeLuca’s commissary on the West side of Manhattan will serve as the Kitchen Stadium. The chefs will have to prepare 5 different dishes using the following 5 ingredients:
1) Brandt Beef bavette steak
2) Foie gras
3) Roasted coffee beans
4) Dried Morel mushrooms
5) Romanesco cauliflower
The Rules:
The chefs must use all 5 of these ingredients, although they will not have to use all 5 in every dish. 30 minutes prior to tonight’s competition, 1 of these aforementioned ingredients will be singled out, and the chefs will be told that they must use it in every one of their dishes. Additionally, the chefs will have all of the ingredients in the Dean & DeLuca kitchen at their disposal.
Each chef will have the help of 1 assistant—the assistants are volunteers from Dean & DeLuca markets and cafés with little or no professional kitchen experience. The chefs will have to race against the clock, as they will only have 1 hour and 30 minutes to cook and plate for 4. Here’s the kicker—1 dish must be a primary or main course dish and 1 must be a dessert. We’ve all seen on Top Chef that desserts are very often chefs’ Achilles’ heel. So, these requirements are really going to stretch the Dean & DeLuca chefs and test their culinary range.
The chefs will serve their dishes head-to-head to a panel of judges. Judges will include 2 lucky Dean & DeLuca catering clients and Tom McAliney, Corporate Chef for Brandt Beef. Our esteemed judges will score the chefs on: how they work in the kitchen (cleanliness, waste control, collaboration with assistant), aesthetics of plating, taste, and originality.
Here’s what’s at stake for the winner:
$250 cash
A case of wine—put together by Dean & DeLuca’s own Wine Director Kerrin Laz
A selection of single origin coffees from Counter Culture Coffee
An assortment of Brandt Beef meat cuts
The tension is sure to be palpable in the Dean & DeLuca kitchen tonight. Check back tomorrow for photos from the competition, a report on the dishes our chefs prepared, and to learn who took home the gold.
