Lisa Shock

My only thoughts on cold food are that, to a certain extent, people don't view them as taking as much effort as hot food. (Tom Coliccio saying "but he didn't cook anything" about Sam's offering in TC Season 2's finale is sill ringing in my ears.) Also, there's a sense that maybe the cold food is more of a snack than a real meal -people still buy hot lunches like burgers & fries or pizza in the heat of summer. IMO, you will have an edge with a hot offering. But, then I don't know the crowd you're facing either. Has this event happened before? If so, research last year's winning entries and try to read anything you can about it. I once entered a competition where a judge had told a reporter the year before that he loathed curry, any and all types of curry. I managed to read the comments, I then stopped thinking about putting any sort of curried item in my entry, while others who did not do research were not so lucky. If you have access to good artisan bread, you might want to explore the connections between bread and beer. Maybe get the baker to make special bread for you, or you make it, and do baby bread bowls with soup/stew. How about mini cassoulet with items cut into small dice and brunoise, and maybe one bean on top as part of the garnish? Soup/stew can also be served in hollowed out new potatoes which have been roasted with oil and herbs. -Customers really love the potato cups. I like Duvel's suggestions of confit items, and I would definitely garnish with the herbs d'provence.

Get the rules, read the rules, follow the rules. If you can, make the item just slightly larger than a 'bite' if you can get away with it. The reason is the secret behind the Dorito. Frito-Lay knows that the Dorito doesn't quite fit in your mouth all at once. It's a psychological trick; the chips seem fresher, crunchier, crisper, if you have to bite into them with your mouth open. If they were 30% smaller, you could get the whole thing in your mouth and then chew it and it would seem less fresh and crunchy. So, push the size limit if you can, with something crunchy. Your item should have components from most (doesn't have to be all) of the types of flavor: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami, spicy and fat. Having a mix of textures is good, just avoid things that are tough, super hard (like peanut brittle), super sticky, or really chewy. Crunch can come from a lot of places: fried chips, water chestnut, jicama, other fresh veggies, etc. The classic Rumaki works on these principles: crunchy water chestnut, soft liver, crunchy bacon; salty bacon, umami soy marinade, sweetness of liver and chestnut, fat of bacon contrasting with no-fat chestnut. An example off the top of my head would be a loaded potato chip, like a nacho. Make a really thick potato chip from a flavorful potato like a red. (If you're really a go-getter, cut the potato into perfect cylinder with a cutter before slicing to get perfect circles. Fry the potato in a good peanut oil and salt with popcorn salt immediately out of the oil. Top with Swiss cheese and broil til melty, add warm garlic-sauteed mushroom slices (discard any mushroom liquid), top with a garnish of bitter microgreens (or chiffonade of radicchio) tossed in a vinegary vinaigrette. Serve on a hot plate to keep the bases warm. Dunno if that would go with your beer or not.

An old, old, classic: shrimp in aspic. Use bite sized molds, silicon should work just fine. The aspic itself could be flavored dozens of ways: cocktail sauce, green curry, shrimp stock/old bay/lemon, ginger soy, etc. The nice thing here is that they could be made 2 days in advance, and are simple to unmold onto a platter. Sushi is ok, but, I did not suggest it because it tends to dry out.

The metric system rocks. You never have to calculate 7/5ths of 16. All the math flows easily in your head.

Mini summer rolls, you just need to cover them well so they don't dry out. Also, instead of a dipping sauce, make a tahini and spice (fresh ginger, garlic, etc.) paste and apply to the inside. Ceviche on skewers. Put shrimp and some raw veg on the skewers and marinate in a tall container. Pull out and place on a platter to serve.

Old Bay?

Ground flax seeds mixed with water make a pretty good egg substitute. I used to take whole flaxseeds and about double the amount of water and run it in the blender until thick. IIRC, it could be used ounce for ounce like eggs. (2oz = 1 egg) Agave nectar is a popular substitute for honey and doesn't have the issues that you may face with people not eating refined sugar because that's made with animal bones.

I have several ones without the fiberglass, I originally found them in kitchen stores. Amazon has a good selection, like this one from Wilton. Look for the ones that are solid colors. They can vary in thickness, but they all roll and bend a lot more easily than Silpats.

You cook the pasta in saffron water, just use a minimal amount of water. -And run a test before cooking the whole batch.

What if you made a s&p mix, to the ratio you like, and just had the cooks scoop out a preset amount like, say an eighth teaspoon per side? You could grind the pepper fresh daily and make up the mix in small batches so the salt doesn't sink too much. The bowl could be right near/at the grill with the measuring spoon in it.

One area of expertise to look at would be kosher parve desserts. They are dairy-free. They may contain eggs, and a test of an egg substitute would be required, but there is a long cultural heritage behind these desserts and probably some good methods to explore.

I agree with the above, I also refuse to use margarine. There are a few things where coconut milk or cream of coconut can replace dairy, but puff pastry and croissants just do not have tasty substitutes for the butter component. (supermarkets in the US offer 'pastries' made with shortening and they are pale in color and flavorless) I have made the old, 1950s era, mayonnaise cake with Veganaise and it tasted good, and was moist, it was just super-delicate and fell apart when I tried to decorate it as a 2-layer 8" cake. It might have been ok as cupcakes. I notice that most vegan cake recipes guide the baker to making cupcakes, IMO that's because the binders do not work as well and larger cakes simply do not have the needed structural integrity.

Don't forget that you can add the sauce to the veg and bring it up to a simmer before adding the pasta, or just serve poured over hot pasta, that will also help cook the vegetables. It'd like to pint out that I make a dish that is similar, but steams the veg rather than sauteing. I use my bamboo steamer and put the veggies in it to steam over the pasta water. If you prep the steamer first, the veg can be warming up over the pre-heating pasta water, and they will be done before the pasta. I also put sauce in a pint canning jar in the steamer to heat up. One burner and very little fuss.

I should mention that some items work just fine in 100% steel, like spaghetti servers -although I rarely use one. However, some items, if used in deep frying or just in/around heat for a while, must have an insulated handle of some sort -wood, silicone, etc. I wouldn't want to deep fry with a 100% steel skimmer.

O have to agree with silicone for spatulas, turners, and ladles. It doesn't scratch and works well. I like bamboo, but, it's really hard and scratches a lot of surfaces. Stainless for everything else.

Looks like Chef Dufresne is closing WD-50. NYT article. The last service will be on November 30. He made the announcement on Twitter, details are sparse at this time. Anyway, anyone dreaming of eating there needs to start making plans soon! "Nov 30 will be our final night of service at wd50. Come celebrate with us for the next 173 days. Stay tuned!! pic.twitter.com/DGnbfkkrV6 "

That sounds exactly like what happened to me, especially the early season part as mine were tiny new potatoes.

Penn Jillette - Great Green Gobs This is practically a classic American folk song, I recall it from my childhood in the 60s. It's also used as the theme song to 'Bizarre Foods America'.

Weezer - Pork & Beans

Here's a few: Monty Python - Spam Presidents of the United States of America - Peaches Harry Gibson - Who put the Benzadrine in Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine? DeeDee Sharp - Mashed Potato Time B52's - Rock Lobster Jonathan Richman - I Eat With Gusto Damn You Bet Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy Dunno if parody counts, but Weird Al has a bunch of food songs: My Bologna I Love Rocky Road Eat It Lasagna Taco Grande Girls Just Want to Have Lunch Waffle King Addicted to Spuds

Yeah, I know, I usually add the vinegar to help the shaped potatoes retain the details of the knife cuts. It doesn't prevent cooking properly, I do it all the time, it just means that a thin shell on the outside of my potatoes doesn't get fluffy. (in the above case, I cooked the baking potato dice in water with vinegar and it came out just fine) As I mentioned in the potato salad thread, my potato salad is a showpiece for knife skills and the vinegar is the secret to the potatoes keeping their perfect cubic shapes. The other thing I have noticed in the past few months is newer types of potatoes at the conventional supermarkets, like Yukon Rose. I am wondering if some the Yukon Golds have been changed by some of the farmers experimenting with hybrids, or raising from seeds instead of seed potato chunks.

You do run that risk, I would just par-bake the bottom, with egg wash to seal it. However, that would need to be done right before assembly. A par-cooked crust won't hold well.

I recently got a bag of very small, new Yukon Golds to make a potato salad appetizer where I cut the potatoes in half and scooped them out and then served potato salad in the halves. They took forever to cook. My test half went really badly, it wouldn't scoop, even after boiling for 25 minutes. I wound up making the main 'salad' from some Idaho bakers I had and just cutting out the cavity out of the halves before boiling. I boiled for about 25 minutes in water with a little vinegar and salt. I thought they were done, drained and started to cool them, and then decided to eat one. It was hard. So, I started more water, just salt this time, and cooked them for another ten minutes. They weren't great, but, I had to present something, so, I assembled and went on my way. IMO, my potatoes were just too small, too young and did not have enough starch developed in them.

Looks like Bravo has a new addition to the Top Chef franchise: Duels, starting August 6. I'm torn about this one, it could be fun seeing previous TC contestants going one-on-one. Or the challenge rules could be so restrictive and convoluted that there won't be much for the chef's to do. I'm also wondering how much they're ripping off 'Knife Fight.'

You need to really think about the repercussions of turning the customer away. If he gets upset or offended, he will become a walking billboard spouting negative comments about your place. He can not only get on Yelp and TripAdvisor, he probably will tell a hundred or more friends and co-workers. You'll lose more than his business from that course of action, and, probably for a very long time. I'd say to suggest that management re-work pricing and wages and simply have a tip-free restaurant. More and more places are moving to this business model.