Top Chef Master Does gluten-free! Soy Free Too! + Vegan!

[Lisa16]

Oh it was wonderful! Five top chef masters had to prepare a vegan meal that was also gluten free and soy free.

There was complaining. "Oh! This pasta is weird," "I am not comfortable cooking for allergies!" But two guys (the top two scores of course,) had gluten-free people in their families.

The guy who lost (Art Smith) went down for using rice dream ice cream instead of making his own. But the winner (Michale C.-- the Italian Chef) made a store-bought quinoa pasta (and it gave him trouble,) which I didn't think was that much different in the end.

There was a Mexican dish (Rick Bayless) that looked divine, but by far the most interesting was by Hubert Keller who made a cucumber gazpacho (I am so trying this!) with an avocado timbale. Oh! Oh! I so wish I had been able to taste that.

I wrote them a year ago and asked the to do a food allergy challenge. I think lots of people wrote in as well. I couldn't believe it! Way to go Top Chef!

There was no mention of celiac though-- the actress was gluten intolerant. She was thrilled with the food. It was very cool to see. They will replay the show next week on Bravo at 8pm (central time).

[kenlove]

Thanks for the report -- almost makes me wish I had TV. When I was on Season 2, I mentioned celiac 3 or 4 times but they cut everything from the final. Now, If you can egt the current copy of the American Culinary Review, the official ACF magazine, there is a good story on going gluten free and what it means for professional chefs who provide this. It's not online..

Maybe you can ask the Wobegon ACF chapter!

take care

Ken

Oh it was wonderful! Five top chef masters had to prepare a vegan meal that was also gluten free and soy free.

There was complaining. "Oh! This pasta is weird," "I am not comfortable cooking for allergies!" But two guys (the top two scores of course,) had gluten-free people in their families.

The guy who lost (Art Smith) went down for using rice dream ice cream instead of making his own. But the winner (Michale C.-- the Italian Chef) made a store-bought quinoa pasta (and it gave him trouble,) which I didn't think was that much different in the end.

There was a Mexican dish (Rick Bayless) that looked divine, but by far the most interesting was by Hubert Keller who made a cucumber gazpacho (I am so trying this!) with an avocado timbale. Oh! Oh! I so wish I had been able to taste that.

I wrote them a year ago and asked the to do a food allergy challenge. I think lots of people wrote in as well. I couldn't believe it! Way to go Top Chef!

There was no mention of celiac though-- the actress was gluten intolerant. She was thrilled with the food. It was very cool to see. They will replay the show next week on Bravo at 8pm (central time).

[Lisa16]

I will definitely try to get my hands on the magazine-- thanks for the tip! It sounds like one I would enjoy.

BTW, your friend Roy was on an earlier episode. They wouldn't let him cook with soy sauce for the first challenge (he had to stick to stuff from only one aisle of the supermarket) and you could tell it hurt him. Then he had to do a main dish using ingredients another chef had boguht him.

I so love this show-- I learn so much from watching them do their thing! I am going to try the gazpacho today. He used cucumber thickened with almond milk and probably the usual gazpacho spices-- maybe some almond meal or paste to boot. It was kind of light green and the waiters kept dropping it because he it put it in a tall glass on a plate.

Maybe you can watch the show from the website for Bravo tv-- might be worth it to see your friend. I think they have webisodes of this :-)

[kenlove]

Yeah I'll have to see this at some point --hopefully someone will have recorded it.

So they wouldnt let Roy use soy sauce -- honestly thats a good thing -- he should know to use Braggs aminos as a replacement.

Mrs Bragg has a farm about 10 miles from here too.

My son was working for Roy then got hired away to the Mauna Kea Hotel. He wants to work hourly and not salary so he can do his other stuff. cant say I blame him..

I will definitely try to get my hands on the magazine-- thanks for the tip! It sounds like one I would enjoy.

BTW, your friend Roy was on an earlier episode. They wouldn't let him cook with soy sauce for the first challenge (he had to stick to stuff from only one aisle of the supermarket) and you could tell it hurt him. Then he had to do a main dish using ingredients another chef had boguht him.

I so love this show-- I learn so much from watching them do their thing! I am going to try the gazpacho today. He used cucumber thickened with almond milk and probably the usual gazpacho spices-- maybe some almond meal or paste to boot. It was kind of light green and the waiters kept dropping it because he it put it in a tall glass on a plate.

Maybe you can watch the show from the website for Bravo tv-- might be worth it to see your friend. I think they have webisodes of this :-)

[Mskedi]

When I heard they were going to cook for Zoey D (I'm not even going to try to spell her last name), I was super excited because I knew it was going to be vegan -- something I've wanted the show to do since the beginning. But then when it was gluten-free as well, I was ecstatic. The three chefs who had the highest scores made absolutely delicious looking meals. The two who got the lowest scores, I think, dropped the ball -- they let the limitations get in the way of their creativity.

Man, I wish I had been at that meal.

And, as a side note, I was glad Art Smith got cut. His food looked okay, I guess, but his attitude annoyed me to no end. If he mentioned cooking for Oprah or the president again, I was going to scream.

[Lisa16]

I felt sorry for Anita Lo, who was the clear favorite to win. Her poor eggplant was sitting in a puddle of oil and that artistic smear of cashew paste looked bad. Poor lady. When they said no soy, she withered up-- yep, the limitations got her.

I forgot about the beet salad Keller made-- the recipe for that is on the Bravo site, as well as for the mango dressing. It has cumin seeds and I will try that out tonight. I LOVE beets! They also have the recipe up for the quinoa pasta dish that won-- it has a basil sauce that looks nice.

It was so amusing to hear that line from the winner in the grocery store: "oh, just cross anything wonderful that you can think of making off the list!" And then he said that his wife had been gluten free. Rick Bayless said his daughter can't do gluten-- but he never said the word celiac. He made it sound like a side effect of something else.