Category Archives: Top Chef

What I’m Reading: Rick Bayless

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If you know me a bit you know I am a HUGE fan of Top Chef. I even text back and forth with my buddy Kumiko (who left and moved to NYC, which is okay, since now I have another person to visit when I go) about the highs and the lows of the show as it happens

I recently really really enjoyed the Top Chef Masters show and (SPOILER ALERT) loved loved LOVED it when Rick Bayless won. (Honestly, I could have gone with Hubert Keller, too, he was also a great chef with a giving personality. I couldn’t get on board with Michael C. Sorry, Michael. You lost me with the “What is my name?” episode–but I have a funny feeling you know that already.)

ANYway. Back to Rick Bayless, who I also started following on Twitter after that (follow me at BarbFreda. Follow Rick at Rick_Bayless)–it was fun to see his Top Chef nerves play out on Twitter through his tweets.

I’ve been a Bayless fan for years. I bought the first edition of Authentic Mexican but was so sure–and so disappointed in my lack of foresight–that I’d donated it when I moved house four years ago. But there it was on my shelf when I went to double check. I also bought his Mexican Kitchen last year when I worked on some Mexican recipes for Boca Raton Magazine. (And can I say I walked through the snow (in April in Chicago) at the IACP conference to get to Frontera Grill, where they asked if I were there for the conference and was presented a little bite in honor of IACP–I had a killer margarita, a great lunch and another walk back to the hotel (snow had stopped by then, no worries…)

His win, the four dishes they had to make, with each course reflecting something about their lives, really was spectacular. And now I’ve become obsessed with the Black Mole (for you non-Mexican food folks: say mo-lay. It’s a sauce.). I think the recipe in the first book, Authentic Mexican, the one for Turkey with Dark and Spicy Mole, is the black mole he mentions. So one day soon, I’m going to assemble that long long long list of ingredients and make it. It may please no one but me in this house (I’ll do homemade tortillas, too, which I blogged about here when I was working on those recipes for BRM)..but that’s okay. I think I need that black mole.

Rick, thanks for that great win, done with with such class and such great food–and a great cause–on Top Chef Masters. Well done.

Pick up the books. Learn about Authentic Mexican.

What I’m Reading: Rick Bayless

Leave a reply


If you know me a bit you know I am a HUGE fan of Top Chef. I even text back and forth with my buddy Kumiko (who left and moved to NYC, which is okay, since now I have another person to visit when I go) about the highs and the lows of the show as it happens

I recently really really enjoyed the Top Chef Masters show and (SPOILER ALERT) loved loved LOVED it when Rick Bayless won. (Honestly, I could have gone with Hubert Keller, too, he was also a great chef with a giving personality. I couldn’t get on board with Michael C. Sorry, Michael. You lost me with the “What is my name?” episode–but I have a funny feeling you know that already.)

ANYway. Back to Rick Bayless, who I also started following on Twitter after that (follow me at BarbFreda. Follow Rick at Rick_Bayless)–it was fun to see his Top Chef nerves play out on Twitter through his tweets.

I’ve been a Bayless fan for years. I bought the first edition of Authentic Mexican but was so sure–and so disappointed in my lack of foresight–that I’d donated it when I moved house four years ago. But there it was on my shelf when I went to double check. I also bought his Mexican Kitchen last year when I worked on some Mexican recipes for Boca Raton Magazine. (And can I say I walked through the snow (in April in Chicago) at the IACP conference to get to Frontera Grill, where they asked if I were there for the conference and was presented a little bite in honor of IACP–I had a killer margarita, a great lunch and another walk back to the hotel (snow had stopped by then, no worries…)

His win, the four dishes they had to make, with each course reflecting something about their lives, really was spectacular. And now I’ve become obsessed with the Black Mole (for you non-Mexican food folks: say mo-lay. It’s a sauce.). I think the recipe in the first book, Authentic Mexican, the one for Turkey with Dark and Spicy Mole, is the black mole he mentions. So one day soon, I’m going to assemble that long long long list of ingredients and make it. It may please no one but me in this house (I’ll do homemade tortillas, too, which I blogged about here when I was working on those recipes for BRM)..but that’s okay. I think I need that black mole.

Rick, thanks for that great win, done with with such class and such great food–and a great cause–on Top Chef Masters. Well done.

Pick up the books. Learn about Authentic Mexican.

Let’s Make Gnocchi/December 12, 2007

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I had to think a moment why I decided I HAD to make gnocchi over the weekend… Then I remembered: Stephen from the Top Chef Holiday special made leaden balls of gnocchi. They were soundly mocked, and I thought to myself I’d better at least make them one time just in case I ever find myself, you know, in a competition having to make gnocchi. I don’t want some judge to drop my gnocchi like a bowling ball on national TV.

So. I checked in with the crew at WineLoversPage.com kitchen forum. They sent me to read Lidia Bastianich’s recipe…and so I began. Whole potatoes in their skins, boiled til tender. Cool slightly, put through food mill (Lidia prefers a ricer, but guess what: I don’t own one). Then let them dry and cool. Add eggs and just enough flour. Roll, cut, press against fork tines, boil. I served mine with brown butter, fresh sage and grated parm. If you look at the photo above, they do look a bit rough, but my cutting technique improved rapidly–it had to; this recipe made a gazillion little pillows of potato pasta.

Let’s Make Gnocchi/December 12, 2007

Leave a reply

I had to think a moment why I decided I HAD to make gnocchi over the weekend… Then I remembered: Stephen from the Top Chef Holiday special made leaden balls of gnocchi. They were soundly mocked, and I thought to myself I’d better at least make them one time just in case I ever find myself, you know, in a competition having to make gnocchi. I don’t want some judge to drop my gnocchi like a bowling ball on national TV.

So. I checked in with the crew at WineLoversPage.com kitchen forum. They sent me to read Lidia Bastianich’s recipe…and so I began. Whole potatoes in their skins, boiled til tender. Cool slightly, put through food mill (Lidia prefers a ricer, but guess what: I don’t own one). Then let them dry and cool. Add eggs and just enough flour. Roll, cut, press against fork tines, boil. I served mine with brown butter, fresh sage and grated parm. If you look at the photo above, they do look a bit rough, but my cutting technique improved rapidly–it had to; this recipe made a gazillion little pillows of potato pasta.