Iron Sufficiency
“Oh my God,” was all she said when the Secret Ingredient was revealed at last night's Iron Fork competition. Then Zola restaurant's chef Deb Paquette got to work on a potato brandad with beef tenderloin and shrimp and an apple turnover—both showcasing fiddlehead ferns—to take home the coveted Golden Fork.
Paquette's Mediterranean-inspired treatments of fiddlehead ferns trumped the outstanding efforts of Will Uhlhorn, Bobby Benjamin, Sean Norton and Clay Greenberg when the five chefs squared off at LP Field’s Stadium Club. The stunning array of culinary showmanship included a spring vegetable Napoleon, Thai curry beef, cod with butter-poached fiddleheads, roasted-tomato-and-fiddlehead soup, and salmon with smoked-tomato panzanella.
After the jump, Mr. Pink's random notes from the whirlwind of chaos, excitement and edible flora.
• First, about the food. Sorry if you ended up putting salt on a centerpiece out of hunger, but who knew we were going to have more than twice the turnout of the most optimistic estimates? The last count we saw was just shy of 2,200. Not what you’d call an Iron deficiency.
• Rumor behind the scenes had the secret-ingredient selection coming down to either the crunchy crozier or shiitake mushrooms. We were glad the fiddleheads won out. Though we missed getting to taste the ones Whole Foods was serving up at its booth, we snagged a few candied fiddles off one of Paquette’s plates. Imagine caramelized asparagus—then imagine wanting more of it.
• Maybe he didn’t get the Fork, but the award for showmanship had to go to Flyte Chef Bobby Benjamin. If nothing else, he made the abstract art of molecular gastronomy look like magic tricks, as onlookers applauded and cheered each cloud of liquid-nitrogen fog. No less wondrous was watching him make rhymes-with-“snippin’-snots” pellets of concentrated flavor by squeezing droplets of tomato solution into a quick-freeze bath.
• Objective for next year (besides more food): solving the logjam of tasting plates that all but overwhelmed the judges, not to mention the servers. Many thanks to those who stepped in to hasten the process, including Intentional Foods raw-food chef Laura Button.
• Glad to see Claudia survived her close encounter with exploding flan.
• Believe it or not, we didn’t get to taste a single item at the booths—not the curry chicken salad from Hotel Indigo, not the pulled pork and ceviche from Flyte, not the chimichangas from Agave, not the shrimp and grits from Rumours East, not the tuna tartare and homemade potato chip from Rumours (Not East). What should we be kicking ourselves that we missed?
UPDATE: Lesley Eats has a nice write-up here.
Comments
Pink et all:
Y'all better get your MC chops down next time.
After The Secret Ingredient was revealed, a lively discussion followed, since I thought you said "Fetal-Head Ferns", Beloved heard "Fiddlestick Ferns", Lesley & Bearded Matthew Broderick heard "Fiddle Ferns", and Claudia didn't hear no-thing, since she was too busy chewing semi-frozen chicken.
Posted 05/01/2008 at 04:32:30 PMMy MC chops are tight, yo. Sucker MC's should call me sire.
Don't know what was happening with the mikes (or the semi-frozen chicken), but it was hard to hear the play-by-play sometimes. Here's all you missed: a botanical and culinary history of Matteuccia struthiopteris (complete with recipes), delivered with a frolicsome aplomb and hilarity worthy of Preston Sturges. People are still slapping their knees over the Boston fern/Wishbone dressing gag.
Wait a sec. We put all you high-powered foodies in one group, and not one of you's ever heard of fiddlehead fern?
Posted 05/01/2008 at 04:54:14 PMI ate a lot of delicious Blue Moon beer. I know Fox didn't miss out on that!
Posted 05/01/2008 at 04:56:25 PMHey, where was the Gnome?
Posted 05/01/2008 at 04:58:12 PMVanilla Pink:
Sorry to bust yo flow, but your crunk-y rhymes was more Michael Schultz than Preston Sturges.
That being said, swell, albeit crowded evening. Reminded me of Latin America, with people cutting in line and what not.
P.J:
Posted 05/01/2008 at 05:10:01 PMAte beer? Was it frozen too?
ok - so the chicken in the curried chicken salad was still frozen. it was a warm evening, no?
just perrrfect.
i'm not critiquing any of the food - including the 4 losing dishes that i got to sample. with my fingers. after they were cold. i have zero shame.
great job to the wonderful and amazing 'nashville scene', especially to inga who did a superb job organizing and running this first time event that raised a significantly large amount of cash to benefit st. lukes.
carrington - i can't shake the visual. it's fucking with my head.
pink - that lipstick on your collar? not me.
thanks for including me, talking me up - and making me feel like i belonged. you guys are the best.
Posted 05/01/2008 at 08:15:48 PMMichael Schultz directed COOLEY HIGH, El Zero, right up there with SCARFACE in the pantheon. I'll wear it proudly. Game, set, match.
Claudia: I'm having the shirt shellacked.
Oh, and you wanna talk shameless? You should've seen Carrington and me eating the leftover judges' plates. Like raccoons burgling a garbage can.
Posted 05/01/2008 at 10:13:46 PMLil' Pink
I was thinkin' "Disorderlies", because your MC skills are still livin' in the 80's, with Boogaloo Shrimp and his harem-troused crew.
Posted 05/01/2008 at 10:34:47 PMFo' show, junk!
Ow, the slash of the Z! Though not as painful as the brevity of the Fat Boys filmography.
Posted 05/02/2008 at 02:06:36 AMPnK:
Nothin' to do w/ the fetal-head ferns, but I did pay $3.75 to watch Disorderlies. I was president of the Ralph Bellamy fan-club.
Is it true that in High School you were prez of the Mr. Belvedere Appreciation Society?
Posted 05/02/2008 at 07:48:16 AMI'm very familiar with fiddleheads, but for ornamentation in the garden not on my plate. I take my cues from rabbits and the ferns are the only things in my yard they don't eat (they usually spit out the echinacea leaves after they've destroyed the plant, though).
Sorry you missed out on the noodles from PM. I could have shared, but as it stands, I already went home hungry.
What'd you miss? Diana of tempus est nunc said the burgers from McFadden's were good. RuSan's sushi looked amazing (and fish-filled). But if you didn't get one of the brownie bites from Zola, then I feel very sorry for you. Delicious.
I would have killed for a spring vegetable Napoleon and a candied fiddlehead. Perhaps I should have waited to root around and fight for the leftovers!
Posted 05/02/2008 at 09:43:04 AMfiddlehead ferns, novelity act in my mind, not really the star of the show. i would have liked to see something more versatile. i had a good time at the event though. no dessert besides brownies that i didn't get and some whipped cream stuff from pm that didn't taste like tea. maybe a cake competition next year along with the hot food jockies??
Posted 05/02/2008 at 01:46:09 PMLesley: RuSan's had some vegetarian sushi..or at least they did at 6:30. I'm not sure how long their supply of it may have lasted.
Posted 05/02/2008 at 02:40:27 PMIt was pretty tasty though; sorry you missed out there.
Is it true that in High School you were prez of the Mr. Belvedere Appreciation Society?
Yes. The Clifton Webb version.
Posted 05/09/2008 at 10:26:40 AMI almost forgot to ask everyone: What would make the event better next year? Of course, more food. But is there something you'd like to see (or not see) next year?
Posted 05/09/2008 at 10:29:08 AM