Sunday, January 10, 2010

Beaten, Battered & Oh Well!

Today was the open casting call for a brand new show to air on Fox called "Master Chef". I just found out about it a few days ago from a friend on Twitter. They were looking for people who like to cook or entertain with food who didn't have professional experience. I wasn't too sure when I initially found out about it, but with a lot of encouragement from Matt I thought what the heck. I know I don't have a lot of experience, but it would be fun!

I went through a few recipes and decided to go with the Shrimp Scampi. It's most assuredly the most involved recipe that I've done or maybe that's just my take on it, since I've not made it a million times. At any rate, I fell in love with this recipe. **Warning- this blog might be a bit long so if you aren't sitting, you might want to**

I don't know how else to tell of my experience other than it's been interesting. I sent my initial email telling my story about how I love to cook and that I'm VERY new to the game. I wasn't going to sugar coat anything of my experience or try to bite off more than I can chew so to speak. :) They would see right through that crap anyway. In the process of sending the producers my store and pictures of plating things and such - I made a virtual friend :) Well she may not consider me one, but she was very sweet and I could send an email to this address and she wasn't going to judge me based on my lack of cooking history. She actually liked the fact that I'm so passionate about cooking and willing to show my true non cooking pro colors :) THANK YOU Maria - you'll never know what that little bit of kindness has meant to me.

I first sent her a picture of a plated tasty treat :) I got this idea out of one of Barefoot Contessa's cookbooks. This is a double chocolate brownie with coffee ice cream(Starbucks - the only way to roll coffee ice cream) with chocolate sauce and a strawberry for decoration. :) Not the most complicated thing in the world, but it was fun (yet stressful) to make but damn tasty! :)

I believe I also sent Maria a picture of my Portobello Steak & Crab dish that y'all got to see earlier in this blog. That was tasty too! :)

Then, just a few nights ago when I made the scampi for the first time, I was SO PROUD of myself that I had to send Maria a picture of it. I just couldn't help myself. :) Within just a few minutes of me hitting the send button, she called me to giggle with me. A little kindness goes a long way people! Learn how to use it! :)

I really wasn't nervous about this experience. I know I don't have but a scratch of cooking experience - all self taught with the long distance help of my Mom Laveta. *You'd love my Mom - she's awsome!* So the process went like this:

Wake up at 8 - take a shower. Get dressed. Get in the kitchen and get cookin'! :)

For only being the 2nd time of making the Scampi it was MUCH better than the first time and the first time I couldn't stop ooohing and aaaaahing over the sauce! I got everything packed up for plating and put the good stuff in a warm mug and took off. Nate kept me company and gave me a lot of support while being nervous. I had a check in time of 11-12 and got to pass through the CRAZY line outside of Sir La Table in Kirkland. It went from the left side of the store in the alley, all the way around the front of the store and up the right side down the street.

I had a pre-screened pass if you will to not sit in that line. So we got in really quickly and didn't have to wait in that MONSTER line. We get inside and immediately I felt in over my head. You can see some people have already plated their stuff and HOLY COW, I must have looked like an idot. But I had the balls to be there and do it anyway. I didn't care.

As the line moves around, I learned that I'm not the only one with little experience and that was comforting. Some dishes I saw, I thought "wow, really!?" I could do so much better than that! I was finally moved around the room to a station where I could plate my Shrimp Scampi. YEAH! (not so much) we had waited there - plated almost an hour - watching people who had come to plate after me come and go. The longer I waited, the worse my stomach got and the more I wanted to cry. Ugh!

We finally get in front of a Chef Judge. The one I wanted to be judged by because she sat with Maria (Woo Hoo!) and I should have kicked myself. I was already seriously nervous and I realize that she was just doing her job, but I felt like I was tore up by this woman who was the professional.

She asked me about how I made the dish and what was in it. Were the shrimp fresh? Why do you clarify butter? Is there stock in the dish and did I make it myself? Uuuuh. :( I'm sorry I didn't have a picked chicken carcass just hanging around to boil & simmer for hours with amazing fresh herbs to blow you away with my chicken stock. I had store bought free range chicken stock. KILL ME! No I don't know why you clarify butter. I now know that it removes water and milk solids and leaves pure butter fat which gives it a higher smoke point, but that doesn't mean much to me and Scampi when I'm not cooking it at a very high temp anyway!
My toast pieces were too large and the plate was unbalanced. It tasted just like scampi. Win!? NO! She got what I was trying to do but it didn't work for her. She seemed very put off that I wasn't bringing her an original creation and that it was a recipe from my Mom.

I was crushed. I tried to keep the tears back. It didn't work. We packed up - I turned in my packet and we headed home. Crying while driving is really hard. But tell me something - why do your best come backs always come AFTER THE FREAKIN' FACT!?
Now I would love to tell that judge or ask her - when she first thought about cooking - was she cooking out of cookbooks and recipes from those around her or was she just the most amazing natural that she was cooking the most amazing inspirational dishes from the get go without any training and a large budget!?!

Did this hurt a little? Yes! Will this stop my cooking adventure? No way in hell! I'm far from done people! As a matter of fact - I encourage all you non cooks who might be interested in cooking to join me in my journey in learning how to cook!

I've had my minute to be sad- now it's time to move on and COOK MY ASS OFF!

Much <3

5 comments:

  1. Hey! At least you tried! Don't ever let what one person says affect your dreams!! More props to you for going for it!! That scampi sounds delish!! I still need to make that taco lasagne!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good on you for going out there and trying it! It probably felt horrible while she was critiquing you, but in the end, she was really giving you advice for the future. Cooking is chemistry, and to be a truly awesome cook, you have to know your stuff. Keep it up, TL! And Kevin and I will eat your shrimp scampi anytime :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Meghan- I really wanted Alton Brown to pop up and help me when she was asking my about the clarified butter! :) I will learn maybe even hit school for it :) who knows :) <3 U

    ReplyDelete
  4. You have so much courage for just taking this one on! Good for you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. TL, as others have said - you had great courage and I applaud you. I was there too, but had the other judge and a slightly different experience but with the same end result. I overheard your judge - she was tough indeed!

    Keep on cooking!

    ReplyDelete