There were some lovely ideas and everyone was so creative and took such great care in crafting their dish(es). Two themes emerged along the lines of: biscuity-brown thing with soft white cold dessert and sweet sauce, and cake-y thing with sweet topping. Decision, as always, was hard due to the high standard that all Paper Chef entrants continually exhibit.
So, without further ado, Paper Chef #6 (Ricotta cheese, Almond paste, White chocolate and Strawberry) goes to A Finger in Every Pie for her Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote with Ricotta-White Chocolate Gelato and Scented Madeleines. I was most impressed with how she made the most of the ingredients available. She knew how to handle less than perfect strawberries to heighten their flavour - something that a lot of entrants needed to do as only in Berkeley do strawberries seem to be at their best at the moment. Her madeleines look so beautiful, the delicate clamshells are so pretty. The gelato recipe, whilst being plain, would highlight the strawberries and delicate almond flavoured madeleines.
I also thought some entries were worth mentioning and so I've given out some extra awards:
Best Plating and Photography go to Belly-Timber for the Quinoa crusted prawns and associated ensemble. This would probably get most innovative use of the ingredients too; it also sounds delicious. You can really see the chef training coming through in this entire blog's writing.
Most Impressive Use of the Topical Ingredient goes to Delicious Life for her tiered White Chocolate Ricotta Cheesecake. The strawberries look simply amazing - and I suggest throwing a Cheesecake Factory cake in the face of anyone that dare suggest it is better than your own handcrafted treat.
I bow down to everyone who made a tuile - they look difficult and impressive. Now I'm in such good company, I'm challenged to make one myself.
Congratulations to everyone for entering - this event is turning out to be such a joyful and fun celebration of quick-thinking food. Everyone that participated has invested so much care and thought into their entries. With such innovative and versatile recipes at our disposable, we're all going to make a splash at our next dinner party. I look forward to reading about it all!
6 comments:
Great judging and such an intelligent round up. I hope I never win - I think the judging is harder than the entry.
David, thanks so much. I can't imagine how you managed to choose among so many creative and beautiful entries. I feel very proud indeed!
hi David,
is there an email address at which I canc ontact you? i'm writing my honours thesis on food blogs and would greatly appreciate your input =)
Ling
onedaylingers@gmail.com
David -- a belated thank you for your compliments and the special photo/plating award! What a great group of entries this time. Yum!
David,
Wonderul write up!! Believe it or not, work's been so busy, it's taken me this long to find time to come read your write-up!!!
Thanks for a great job!
A very belated thank you to your comments. It was very hard to judge indeed - I wish I could have tasted; or perhaps not as my gym membership is about to run out.
I look forward to reading and perhaps participating in future Paper Chefs.
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