1st Ever Slice-Off!

Ok, I've told you about The Games We Play in the Food Network kitchens when I'm in recipe testing mode. First, it was the 1st ever Sear-Off! Two bacon-wrapped turkey breasts were put on the ticket and Culinary Gangsta of all Things Cuisine, aka Santos, challenged me to have a more perfectly seared protein than him. I love a challenge, so if you click the link above you can see how that went. BTW, that turkey was my Bacon-Wrapped Turkey Breast stuffed with Pear Hash.

Fast forward to our current round of recipe testing and a challenge was thrown at me out of the blue again ... and this time, Santos was the judge and Jenna, an assistant culinary producer was pit against me in the 1st ever (and probably the last lol) ...

SLICE-OFF!!

Ok, here were the rules. Santos cut two equal-in-size pieces of yellow bell pepper and challenged Jenna and I to see who could make the most thin slices out of our piece of pepper ... and it wasn't pickled :-). I chose my trusty 10-inch wide knife and Jenna put her Yan Can Cook Cleaver to work. Now, I have to tell you, I always admire Jenna's chop, sometimes even saying things in conversation with them like "Ok, for this recipe I'm gonna Jenna Chop the garlic then saute ..." or "I think I'll add some onions all Jenna-chopped up". So she truly has a rep for a great slice game in my book. The piece of pepper was smaller than a business card, but in hindsight I don't know why we didn't measure it. We just made sure both pieces were equal in size from the start. I got to work on my piece with Jenna to my left and to my surprise finished before she did, but that doesn't matter. The goal was quantity of slices not who got to the finish line fastest. Santos told us early on that he wouldn't have any half slices, they needed to be the full length of the piece and even throughout. Tough judge eh? Not so much, I mean no one would try to sell off a bad slice to the Culinary Gangsta would they???

Here he is inspecting my pieces while Jenna intently focuses on her slivers of yellow bell pepper in the background ..
I was so nervous while he was counting!!! I just wanted a good showing. He counted and I had 37 slices that were regulation. I had a few that just didn't make the cut, but I knew it early on and pushed them to the side with an audible ugh of defeat. All I could think was I why didn't I take my time??? ... look at Jenna over there intense and deep in concentration ... will I win??

He counted up from the 30s and my stomach was excited as he counted ... 33, 34, thirrrrrteeee-fiii-eeeveee, thirty-siiiiiiiiiiiiiix ... and to both my and Jenna's surprise he stopped at the magic number 37! A tie! Here we are happy with our results!
What fun! After that teeny break we got back to work testing recipes, but with a tie maybe we should have another go at it huh? Ok, just wanted to send you off with a smile for the weekend. Enjoy your Superbowl and check the Food Network Big Game page for last minute party ideas ... btw GOOOOOOOO SAINTS and COLTS!!! (fyi, I'm not pandering to everyone, I'm actually a "when in Rome-er" lol, I've lived both places so I support them just like the Cowboys, Lions, Jets and Giants)

The 5th Annual Great Gathering of Chefs and Me.

One of these things is not like the other ...

That's me, Culinary Gangsta of All Things Cuisine (as I call him) Santos Loo, Owner of one of my favorite restaurants in the world and chef, Marva Layne of Negril Village and part-owner of Annisa, Chef Anita Lo. We are all huddled together yesterday at The 5th Annual Great Gathering of Chefs. Why am I there? Being that I'm not a chef? Well, sometime last year I was taping Cooking for Real here in Manny Hatty and famed photographer Alan 'Battman' Batt visited the set as a guest of Susan Stockton. We met briefly and I went back to work. Later that day I was asked by Susan to participate in his book. Seems he enjoyed what he saw and even though I wasn't a chef, he asked her to invite me to participate in his charity efforts. As soon as I was told it was for charity, I said yes and dropped what teeny bit of insecurity I had about being in a cookbook with such big-time chefs. Oh, let me explain ... Alan puts out beautifully photographed (by him, of course) cook books once a year using donated recipes from the world's top chefs. Then he hosts an event so they can all sign the books. He then sells the books donating the proceeds to a charity. This year the charity is Action Against Hunger. I didn't hear much after I submitted the recipe, but then earlier this year while I was shooting, I got back to my green room and on my table was a huge blown up photo of the recipe I submitted. I was so excited, what a great photog can do to a simple recipe! Anyway, just yesterday was The 5th Annual Great Gathering of Chefs and there I was in some jeans and a cowl-neck sleeveless sweater, while most of the attendees were in chef whites, blues, blacks and other.
I call this picture "Where's Waldo", look at all the chef coats! Can you find a home cook in there somewhere??? Lol, it was really crowded, but I got there early and caught a shot of one of the long signing tables ...
That's just one of the tables, they wrapped the entire room with tables and still with that had to snake a bit to fit all the chefs, plus me, teeheehee. The lush green to the right out the window is Central Park. What a view. Would you pay millions to live there? I dunno, I think Prospect Park in Brooklyn is just as beautiful, I digress ...
That's a guy from D'Artagnan prepping hot dogs made of duck. He topped 'em with spicy brown mustard and a drizzle of reduced balsamic vinegar. They actually served a 3rd of a hot dog, cut and then skewered, I coulda done about 6 of those. I held back though and did one. I must say, I keep some reduced balsamic on hand in the fridge because it's so good over so many things, so now I'll have to add hot dog to that list. To the right is the crew from ISBRE water. They were total foodies and watched Food Network and watched my show, so that was neat to meet them. On the other side was a Starbucks set up with the new instant coffee. I mention these sponsors because I really like companies that support charitable causes, especially when budgets are being cut across the board. The coffee tasted like, well coffee. I couldn't tell it wasn't brewed, but I muddy my coffee up so much with other stuff so ...
And that's the book I'm in! It's called Small Things Savory, Bite Size Dishes From 150 Chefs. Eric Ripert, Emeril Lagasse, Daniel Boulud, Alex Guarnaschelli and me. Goooooooo Homecooks!!!! I scored one for the team and did it for charity, thanks for your support! I couldn't do this without you watching and supporting. Pretty neat.

The Games We Play

Hey there! So, every profession has it's at-work games or ways to break tension and stress, right? When I was in the Air Force as a radio broadcaster in Korea, all the dj's would try to think of funny ideas for commercials and then we'd each rush to produce it. It was work, but we made it fun by challenging each other and actually got awards for them. Just recently, I got to experience some more at-work fun while testing recipes in Food Network's kitchens...

Here I was, wrapping bacon around turkey with my head down and in the cooking game, when I heard the challenge thrown at me. Santos Loo, who I've dubbed my Culinary Gangsta of All Things Cuisine, decided he wanted to challenge moi to ...

A SEAR-OFF!

I like any challenge and if it has to do with food and work, why not? We were working on my Thanksgiving episode of Cooking for Real for this fall and my recipe called for 2 turkey breasts, stuffed and rolled up and then wrapped with bacon. Sear first, then roast and I was juuuuuust about to put the first one in a pan to sear when Santos layed down the challenge. I promptly accepted the challenge and waited for him to finish stuffin' and rollin' his own turkey breast then snapped this shot of him searing ....

Then I put mine in a pan and he took this pic ...
He haggled me for the hands-on approach, but I told him if my hands were clean, they were fair game! We rushed into the challenge so fast, we didn't even lay ground rules! In a Sear-Off, contact with the surface is key, so I wanted to make sure my turkey-roll ends got love. I laughed at him and told him not to steal my technique and he in turn asked me to not watch him sear, all in fun of course. So for a time, we seared with our backs to each other. Here we are, a few minutes deep into the competition. I had my ends taken care of and now all I was going for was 360 degrees of color.
Looks neck and neck right? So the key was that these would have to go in the oven and still roast for some time, so the sear is important. Too much of a sear and the final will look blackened and too little and the final product just won't be crispy all the way around, especially on the bottom of the roast. And the results are in ...
Ahem, lol ... This is actually the way I took the final picture at first, but then Santos pointed out that I played favorites with the angle. I know, I play dirty! We laughed it off and I took a Santos-approved flick.
That's Santos' on the left and mine on the right. So, we both agreed ... I won! Then we realized in our haste to enter the Sear-Off challenge, we forgot to make sure Santos tied up his bird. This keeps the shape and holds the bacon in place. So, really he wasn't on even playing ground. That being said, we both won because we eventually got to eat!
Turkey anyone? I like at-work challenges. I've seen some office Olympics stuff online and have heard of other at-work challenges, just thought I'd give ya a foodie one. What I really want to do is a blind-folded palate test. I'm sure I also owe Santos a rematch in the Sear-Off. Can't wait to share the turkey and stuffing recipe with you on the show this holiday season!

Slo Mo Slide Sho - All Palates On Deck

Speaking of the tasting team, here they are ...

In addition to the entire kitchen staff and the occasional executive that walks through while I'm cooking, each time I go in to test my recipes, I want as many people to try the food as possible. Then there are people that work directly with me on the show that are constant tasters when I'm in the kitchen. Here's our current team. That's Allison on the left, she's an intern and a vegetarian, so many of the recipes she couldn't taste. I kept telling her how I had some vegetarian stuff on the way, then the day we were gonna do my vegetarian lasagna ... it turned into a meaty lasagna for show purposes and I felt like I let her down teeheeehee. She's in culinary school and I asked her how she does the protein courses without eating the meat and she says her friends in school let her know if it's good ... where there's a will there's a way! Next is Jenna, she works with me on the show and assists my culinary producer, Sarah - she's the next one in line, then there's Santos, who I've dubbed the Culinary Gangsta of All Things Cuisine. Together we all taste my recipes and they give comments and notes. Most of the time when they watch me cook, we are able to shorten processes or make shortcuts and sometimes we even come up with new stuff on the spot. Many times when a recipe is finished and we taste it and it tastes perfect, we look at each other like ... "hmph, guess that's that!" lol ... Usually then we just talk about the salt content. More? Less?

Here's an example of us working/playing at the same time. This is really a part of an actual dessert, trust me. I know it looks crazy, but only 1 item belongs, then everyone came in and put in their own symbol ... I didn't do the sun, that was Jenna :-). This is a great dessert in the making, hope you catch the show and remember it's humble beginnings.

SLo Mo Slide Sho - "Diggin' In"

Welcome to my first ever Slo Mo Slide Show! On the way today are flicks from my time in the Food Network kitchens this week. Check in every other hour today for a new flick!

#1. Diggin' In

Monday started with a recipe I just finished writing. I had this meal growing up and just recently it came up twice within the same week during conversations with friends. It's my version of Shepherd's Pie, I add cheese a different blend of seasonings and then a red wine gravy to boot! It's the latter that I didn't know would work. Well, it works for me, but sometimes things can't fit in time wise and many times parts of recipes get saved for other recipes. Thanks to a few comments here and smiles and silence from my dude when I served it, I went in rooting for the gravy to stay with the recipe. So this is the first scoop of the teeny test batch each of us on the culinary team had to try and give the verdict.


ooooooooooohh, Santos got the corner, no worries there are three left :-). Stick around and find out if the dark, rich gravy makes the plate.