I've been doing some culinary charity benefits & picking up great ideas

music-city-missy

Well-known member
First up was the Cooking Wild with Coach Jeff Fisher of the Titans. Several of the top chefs in town - winners of that $500 a plate meal:

Zucchini 'Faux' Crab Cakes that I posted earlier

Desserts - diced poached pears (lemon peel, black pepper and other spices in a simple syrup) with a caramel 'cream', orange caramel sauce, cocoa nib lace cookie crumbs and a quenelle of orange sorbet - WOW the flavors were incredible! Then she topped it off with chocolates filled with a caramel with garam masala but the killer - 'Turkish delights' made from mango and passion fruit - OMG - they were to die for.

Then this week the MOD Signature Chefs - lots of 'dissapointments' but a few outstanding dishes and ideas:

Definitely Chef Taubin's braised brisket with watermelon bbq sauce and onion confit on top of mini potato pancakes. The watermelon just jumped out at you in a good way and stood up to all the bbq flavor. She runs the kitchens at Loews Vanderbilt Plaza hotel and I think she is not only one of the top hotel chefs ever but she's one of the top chefs in Nashville - always turning out surprises in flavor and texture.

Next - a very nice smoked pork tenderloin - very slowly smoked with nice pink smoke ring served with apples cooked with Jack Daniels and brown sugar as well as a very well balanced JD bbq sauce.

Another interesting one - they made a sauce by pureeing gumbo and straining it and put that as a base. Then they made a crab cake and incorporated white beans into it - very nice. Topped with a seared scallop and micro greens. The pureed gumbo here was the winning touch and take away.

One other one - orange mini muffins made with yogurt sliced with smoked turkey. Served with a cranberry basil aoli. The flavors were nice - would be fun to play with it - maybe a cranberry muffin or scone with an orange basil aoli.

One thing I did see were lots of different takes on aoli.

Anyway - just thought I would share - some of the flavor combinations and stuff were interesting and got me thinking and playing.

 
Missy, the Watermelon BBQ Sauce sounds wonderful! w/brisket, onion confit, & potato pancakes-Heaven!

 
Back
Top