Montclair Iron Chef : Bourbon

I got to channel my inner Masaharu Morimoto tonight as I found myself sitting as a judge on Montclair’s own Iron Chef competition. I’m not going to lie, I have been pretty pumped about this since I was invited to judge about a month or so back. I had zero idea of what I would be walking into but left with a tasty touch of bourbon in my belly (all while maintaining my sobriety).

So, I have this friend couple, Bill and Kerry, who mentioned their local Iron Chef competition to me one late night while we were all enjoying drinks. I was rather intrigued, and a bit jealous, of the idea behind it mainly because I have been working on plans to host my very own Iron Chef or Chopped competition here in the neighborhood. After talking about it briefly, Bill invited me to join them next time and be a host, and that’s exactly what I did.

Here’s a little recap of my night

FIRST….

…and it must be said, I dressed to the nines in one of my favorite black blouses and a high slit skirt I made a few days before. I completed my outfit with my Barbiecore pink flats. I didn’t do too much, as far as makeup, but I wore my black heart earrings, my cursive J necklace, and my huge black onyx rock.

Okay, I know that that isn’t a super important part of the night but I wanted to do a bit of a humble brag on the fact that I made this skirt and I absolutely love it.

The evening began at 6pm at Dave’s house. Almost immediately when I walked in, there was an abundance of bourbon and wine on the kitchen counters. Great start. People started coming in, to include my friends Bill and Kerry. Shortly after everyone arrived, the judges went into the dining room.

There was an abundance of bourbon in the kitchen as the guys started working on putting the finishing touches on their dishes.

Next came the tasting.

The three categories that we were grading the food on were Plating, Creativity, and Taste.

Crispy Chicken w/ Bourbon Cream Sauce and homemade Fettuccine.

My takeaways from this dish:

Plating - The dish was heavy on the noodles compared to the portion of the chicken. The cheese was obviously not freshly grated.

Creativity - Feels like a traditional American dish.

Taste - The chicken was tender but the skin was not very crispy, though well-seasoned. The pancetta was a bit too small to appreciate in a full bite. The noodles were uniform, chewy, and very nice. The sauce was subtle, but the bourbon flavor was a bit too subtle.

Bourbon Shepard’s Pie atop Irish Soda Bread

Plating - Heavy on the potatoes but a nice try.

Creativity - Nice twist on a classic dish. I appreciate the homemade bread.

Taste - Unless you get all the different foods in one bite, if felt unbalanced. The potatoes were a bit lumpy. The crunch of the veggies were a nice contrast to the potatoes and bread. The meat was tender and well seasoned. The dish was heavy on the sauce and the sauce was very sweet. The dish was a bit heavy between the potatoes and the bread.

Bourbon Three-Ways

Plating - This dish was well plated. The shrimp and grits ran a bit heavy on the sauce. Nice job keeping the tail on for presentation but it makes it hard to eat the shrimp as you cannot cut the tail off in the bowl it was presented in.

Creativity - The tri plate concept was creative. The lowland idea played nicely with the shrimp and grits.

Taste - Grits were a bit firm. The shrimp had great flavor. The mousse was a bit too boozy, but had good consistency. The sauce, in the shrimp and grits, was fantastic.

Taste of New Orleans - Bread Pudding

Plating - The portion of this dish was a bit large and it was swimming in sauce.

Creativity - It was a basic bread pudding, no real risks were taken with it.

Taste - Love the crisp top. The bread pudding was very tender. The portion of raisins were very balanced. Overall, the dish had a great use of the bourbon. Buttery, firm, and a great contrast in texture.

And for the results:

In fourth place - Shepard’s Pie

In third place - Crispy Chicken with Fettuccine

In second place - The Bread Pudding

And first place was the Bourbon Three Ways.

Bill (right) passes the Iron Chef Cast Iron to the new champion Tim (left).

This was a lot of fun. I brought a big memo pad with me to take notes and took my job as a judge very seriously. I think all the chefs did a great job and was rather surprised and impressed with the quality of food that was presented to us.

Now….moving forward. I talked to these gentlemen about letting me sponsor the next Iron Chef event through my business and turning it into a little bit of a bigger ordeal. I’ve been looking for a final project to work on before I leave and I think I found it. Soon, I will be presenting ‘Montclair’s Iron Chef Championship’. You can look forward to that in my front page under my upcoming events.

Be well and have a glass of bourbon for me.