[KyleC]

Unfortunately I was unable to get my dishes done for this Iron Chef but hopefully my schedule permits me into the next one. Anyways, I figured I'd add some comments on the dishes, I saw a few things that could have done better and improve the dishes greatly.

This is definitely a tl dr but Klompy, P Chippa, Mrs. Utah and Stevie G please read I evaluated all your dishes and tried giving some pointers to improve your plates for next time. Hope to compete against you all next week or the week after hehe. Have a happy thanksgiving.

Klompy,

Personally, I think you should have taken a pictures seperately for each dish. I believe the dishes you prepared are very tasteful and appetizing, and you could have illustrated that with a better presentation. One thing about your dish is, you never serve two identical components on the same dish (stuffing *rice*, and the broccoli,rice, and cheese). I believe you could have made the broccoli, rice, and cheese the focal point of your dish by serving it in the middle and maybe having a sliced hen served on top. Second thing, think portion size you always don't want it to be too big or too small I believe your dish could serve almost 2 people. I would have only served a few pieces of the hen on top of the broccoli, rice, and cheese. I'm sure the stuffing was great but you already have the rice covered. Another thing try using a plain white plate next time, the plate you have takes your eyes away from the more important food [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

P Chippa,

Great looking appetizer but you need clean up your cream sauce looks too messy. If you didn't have a squeeze bottle to put your sauce in, an easy way to clean up the look is get a wet hand towel and use it to make the sauce look nice and uniform. The herbs are a nice garnish but I don't know how I'd feel getting one of those in my mouth with the sauce, a way of getting around that is mincing it up and sprinkling it over the dish. You gotta try add height to your dish as well you could have accomplished that by taking the herbs on the top right of your dish and squeezing them in the middle of the 4 herb rice crisps. Second dish same thing with the sauce clean it up a bit, it'd also help a lot if you added some more color maybe another crab leg on the other side of your rice dish, and you can definitely do without the lemon slice it'ls too Denny's no offense. Your dessert looks good but you should serve the whip cream on top of your pudding to add height, and the sprinkled cinnamon over the whipped cream would make it look better as well. Great food though I'm sure it was tasty [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img].

Ron Burgundy,

Overall, I believe you should have won but I think presentation was the only thing holding you back. All your dishes sounded delicious and seemed like you did well with the secret ingredient. Dish one had so many different ingredients and it sounded so good, but one thing you never want to do with a presentation is make it look like a lunch lady scooped it out and plopped it on the plate. You can do this by shaping one of your things of sushi differently by not using an upside down ramaken(sp?). Bring your sushi closer together and not have the wasabi and stuff at the center of your plate. Second dish once again you don't want that lunch lady plating your food! Think portion size don't have so many pieces of tuna on the plate, and cook the presentation tuna rare not medium. Out of all the dishes I'd definitely want to taste this one. Rice pudding sounded wicked but once again need a bit better presentation add more color! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] A good way to accomplish this is maybe a pineapple slice on the glass and maybe some shaved coconut on the top or maybe toasted coconut. The cherry biscotti maybe have on leaning on the other don't just have them sitting there beside each other it looks plain. Overall good job man I think you should have won this [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img].

Mrs.Utah,
The problem with your dishes is we need to see the size of the dish. To me the entree looks smaller then appetizer, I know this is not true unless you have giant asparagus. Appetizer looks good but to me it seems like the rice cakes are just a part of a mushroom aspargus sandwich, I think you could have made them the focus of your dish. Second dish I believe the great photography makes it look better then it is actually presented. You want to keep things away from the edge of the plate so try to bring things closer to the center. To me if it was zoomed out it'd just be two balls of hash with a poached egg on top with some hollandaise. I'd like to see more of the secret ingredient here as well.As for the dessert, you don't want to garnish with anything that is not in the dish itself so no need for the rasberries. Also, aside from the pretty picture I believe you could have chosen something else to illustrate the rice much better, when I saw the picture I was like oh creme brulee. So maybe next time show us the ingredient.

StevieG,
Appetizer looks great but maybe find a better way to show off your rice patties maybe stacking one on another. Also, if someone served you some rice patties with that much sweet and sour sauce I don't think you'd like it hehe, make a bit larger design so there'll be some sauce in each bite. Entree once again people we gotta think portion size! That's maybe what 2-3oz of meat? Stack your rissoto a little higher and a few more slices of flank steak and you've got yourself a great dish, wouldn't hurt to add a veggie for the dish to add color either. For the dessert same thing with Mrs.Utah try find something to show us the secret ingredient better, Klompy and P Chippa definitely did a good job showing it off. Otherwise some tasty sounding dishes good job!

I thought you all did a very good job especially if you all are self taught cooks. A few pointers for plate presentation: always think portion size, try add height to the plate it'll make it look much better, have color don't want your dish to look plain and bland, and only use garnish if it's used in the dish. Hope this helps and hope I can find some time to be in the next Iron Chef.