I’m just a cook, I aint no rocket surgeon

final dish...not as planned compared to practice run

Inhumanely killing the lobster even more....

As many people know, this was my first ACF competition. I’ll be honest. I was 12-15 minutes LATE plating my food. I was NAILED for “INHUMANELY” killing my lobster.   I thought that this competition was going to be about refined cuisine hence the name “contemporary” cuisine.. My dish is the ONLY one that used exotic mushrooms, bright colors, and things like Red vien sorrel or micro greens, not that it is FANCY  or anything. Every dish LOOKED exactly the SAME.. carrots, asparagus, potato and tomato. Basically they were looking for things that you would find in Escoffiers’ book…I had no idea it would be like this. This is not my style of cuisine although it has its place, dont get me wrong. I went with a more modern dish..that was failure number ONE…number TWO…was they way I killed my lobster. Now, I normally cook my lobster sous vide or at a controlled temperature. I did not have a circulator available to me so I decided to go with Keller’s approach to lobster which is steeping your lobster with boiling water and vinegar for 2 minutes, then the claws for another 5 minutes. The judge came up to me and asked me “are those lobsters still alive”?  I said  “yes”.  He looked at me like I was Charles Manson. He politely asked me to take them out of the water and stick a knife in its head….So I did..I pulled out the 2nd lobster and as I did, my timer went off for the tails, so instead of sticking a knife in its head, I ripped the tail off, and THEN stuck a knife in it…WHY? I DONT KNOW…I panicked,  my timer went off for the tails to be ready, he was over my shoulder staring at me.

Judges Table:  I am surrounded by CMC’s and highly credited chefs at the judges table and they are going over my plate. The never said anything about the flavors or the tots. One said that his lobster seemed under done. Which may be due to the soft butter poach, it is a different texture after all..but I know it was not raw nor slightly under. They did give me a 15 minute lecture , in front of EVERYONE mind you…about how I need to respect the product. I needed to research and understand what I was doing and then proceeded to tell me a story about rabbits and this and that which was told as if were a personal story….. It was the story in “Soul of a Chef’ by Rhulman about when Keller talks about his respect for live rabbits  when he has to kill them himself…I remember the chapter in the book as if I read it yesterday.  YEAH YEAH,,, I read that book too…thanks though..  Anyways, I do not think I will do another ACF competition. Not because I got reamed or I did not finish on time. It is clearly not the food I want to do.  The guy who brought home the Gold medal did  a dish of roasted bronzini with two tourneed potatos, 4 batons of carrots, some celery nest or some spindle of vegetables, and two pan roasted cherry tomatos and god knows what else… The plate was crowded with food. Honestly, it looked like a nightmare. Appetizing? No, technical….ok….maybe……If that is what wins, I’m sorry, it is not for me. You live and you learn. Now NO MORE LOBSTER POSTS!!