Iron Chef OOT 11/13-11/19

[Ron Burgundy]

This is such a tough decision, I'm going to rate each dish on a scale of 1-20 in: Taste (how I think it would taste), and 1-10 in: Creativity, Difficulty, and Presentation. I'll also make a few comments as to why I rated them the way I did.



P Chippa,

Very solid all around, but I took off points in difficulty. The recipes were rather simple compared to the others. Your dessert was the best, but would've been even better had you put a little more thought into the plating.

Mrs. Utah,

Your app sounds and looks great except for the asparugus, which I don't personally like. Your entree looks good, but I don't think I would want to order that as an entree in a restaurant, it seems more like a sunday brunch item.

When I first saw this thread and the mandatory rice pudding dessert, I immediately thought "I'll bet there's gonna be a bunch of creme brulee type things." In this competition, I'd like to see things that aren't standard restaurant menu items.

StevieG,

The plating of the entree I don't really understand. The two risottos were a really cool idea, but why put them together on the plate? It seems like they would get mixed in while you're eating it, which defeats the purpose of going through the trouble to make them separately. Also, there's not really any texture on the plate. Maybe a little salad with croutons or nuts, or a bruscetta.

I was very underwhelmed by your dessert. I'm sure it tasted good, but raisins + rum is pretty standard. And there's absolutely no effort of presentation made. Did you eat it off the oven rack?

[SackUp]

Steve FTW on this one.

Nice work all!!

[CardSharpCook]

[ QUOTE ]
And there's absolutely no effort of presentation made. Did you eat it off the oven rack?

[/ QUOTE ]
HAHAHA!!! I was thinking the same thing. WTF Stevie??? At least TRY to plate it.

Ron, How is Mrs. Utah not scoring 10s in presentation?
Also, I thought P Chippa's rice Crisps was the most creative dish in this contest.

My vote went to Mrs. Utah, but this was a close contest. Good work, cooks.

[Ron Burgundy]

[ QUOTE ]
Ron, How is Mrs. Utah not scoring 10s in presentation?

[/ QUOTE ]

It was certainly the best presentation, I dunno about 10s though. The photos were a little too close up, IMO. I'd like to see the whole plate.

[P Chippa]

Mrs. Utah takes it down! Good job.

[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.

[StevieG]

The criticism here is good. it's entirely called for in a competitive situation, but manages to be constructive anyway.

Nor do I want to come off as defensive, since I largely agree with the comments on the dishes.

That said I have I want to elaborate on two things:

1) The sweet and sour garnish on the twice fried rice patties was minimal. Maybe the pictures are misleading, but there was probably about 1/2 - 1 T on those plates

I really feel the need to say this because a personal pet peeve of mine is killing salads by turning dressing into drowning, etc.


2) The risotto plating really did not come out clearly in the pictures. On the plate, it was easy to discern the two and east them separaely, they were not mixed but rather stacked against one another. Plus the flavors were meant to complement each other in a pairing, so some colocation was expected.


OK, that's it. I'll try to plate better next time.

[KyleC]

Stevie G,
I'm glad you could take something away from my review of your dishes. After thinking about it some more another thing I thought of is you could have made a pan sauce or maybe some demi glace with your flank steak with duo rissoto (I liked the duo rissoto). I hope the other Iron Chefs read my reviews my goal is only to help improve your guys plate presentations. In the coming weeks if I'm unavailable I'd like to continue to add my 2 cents if yall dont mind [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. Keep it up man [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img].

[Ron Burgundy]

Kyle,

I appreciate the time you took to to make these well thought out reviews. However, I don't quite understand a few points you make.

[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

Since sushi isn't an original idea, and because I already did sushi rolls for the sweet potato contest, I wanted to do something different with the presentation. Personally, I like the upside down bowl thing. It looks clean and simple, you can taste all the ingredients in every bite, and it leaves a nice space on top for the salmon roe.

[ QUOTE ]
Think portion size don't have so many pieces of tuna on the plate, and cook the presentation tuna rare not medium.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought the portion size was perfect, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that. If I were cooking this for other people, then I would leave it rare on the inside, knowing that's the way most people prefer it, but since I'm the only one eating it here, I made to my preference.

[ QUOTE ]
Rice pudding sounded wicked but once again need a bit better presentation add more color! 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.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree it could've looked better. I used all the pineapple I had in the pudding, I guess it would help to make a plan of how I want things to look on the plate BEFORE I make them. I tried putting the biscotti on top of eachother, but they were too crumbly and would fall apart. I should've used an egg or two in the dough to hold it together.

[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really? I thought Stevies app was plated and sauced beautifully. It was my favorite app. I think on a starchy patty like that, it's better to err on the side of too much rather than too little sauce.

[ QUOTE ]
Entree once again people we gotta think portion size! That's maybe what 2-3oz of meat?

[/ QUOTE ]

Considering that you thought there was too much tuna on my entree, I honestly don't know if you're saying this is too much or too little steak.

[KyleC]

Ron Burgundy,

I hope you didn't take offense to any of my review, like I said I think your dishes were the strongest I hope from my review you can take some of the information away and help improve for your next Iron Chef.

One of the reasons why I had a problem with the sushi presentation it just seemed too plain with the two mounds. Overall it's a pretty plate with nice colors but I think it could have better by moving the two things of sushi to the middle and possibly spreading a bit of the roe around the sushi. As for the tuna dish I understand you were cooking it for yourself which is why you cooked to medium, but I believe it is a few pieces too much in terms of portion size. With the dessert definitely always think ahead when preparing to make a plate, as I cook my dishes plate presentation is always going through my head thinking what I need etc.

For Stevie's dish it was plated beautifully I agree I just believe he could have had a bit more sauce. The way I always put things in perspective is if I were at a restaurant would I be satisfied with this. I am not taking anything away from his dishes they are great but if you were served that large portion of cakes for an appetizer and your entree arrived with 3 pieces of meat and risotto what would you think? I believe Stevie's dish is a perfect example of not enough meat and your tuna dish is a good example of a bit too much.