Food Judges...

[GeorgeG]

My wife watches just about every food challenge on TV and I can't help thinking these "gourmet" judges probably wouldn't know a good meal if it hit them in the face. I'll admit to not being very sophisticated when it comes to gourmet food, but I expect the ingredients and finshed products to represent some form of real food.

Last night there was not much for the competing chefs to work with and the judges were actually arrogant enough to pretend to know how duck tongue and chicken testicles should be cooked and what they should taste like. If, in fact, they really know such things, I'm thinking they really, really need to be served a good ol' steak or burger as part of a rescue effort. Just once, I'd like to see a chef with the good sense to tell them where to stick their exotic ingredients and serve them up a real meal.

 

[minniecarousel]

My wife watches just about every food challenge on TV and I can't help thinking these "gourmet" judges probably wouldn't know a good meal if it hit them in the face. I'll admit to not being very sophisticated when it comes to gourmet food, but I expect the ingredients and finshed products to represent some form of real food.

Last night there was not much for the competing chefs to work with and the judges were actually arrogant enough to pretend to know how duck tongue and chicken testicles should be cooked and what they should taste like. If, in fact, they really know such things, I'm thinking they really, really need to be served a good ol' steak or burger as part of a rescue effort. Just once, I'd like to see a chef with the good sense to tell them where to stick their exotic ingredients and serve them up a real meal.

Yeah, I wonder what they'd do if they had to judge a roast beef dinner? Ha! I've noticed that many "judges" are too full of themselves. (yuk, tongue and......really?)

 

[kaytieeldr]

I don't know to which specific shows/judges you're referring, and I absolutely seldom agree with their opinions, but most of the time, those judges are professional chefs, food editors, reviewers, etc.

 

[Imzadi]

I don't know to which specific shows/judges you're referring, and I absolutely seldom agree with their opinions, but most of the time, those judges are professional chefs, food editors, reviewers, etc.

It was Top Chef Masters. They really did go too far. They had duck tongue and chicken testicles, kangaroo, sea eel, goat legs, I think, even jellyfish. I think part of the challenge was to see if the chefs were willing to taste the "food" items, in order to try to cook something palatable with them.

Sorry, I'll cook it, but I'm not going to taste the duck tongues I'm feeding you.

 

[TDC Nala]

It's TV and they're trying to do something outlandish so people will watch.

 

[Darsa]

Chickens have testicles???

 

[Planogirl]

I'm glad that American Iron Chef doesn't do anything that wacky. I love some of these shows but I think that I would have turned that one off.

 

[Sparx]

I'd love for my job to entail eating food made by the best chefs in the world, but really I'm too picky. I don't want any tongues, brains, or testicles for that matter involved in my dinner!

 

[Poohbear123]

Chickens have testicles???

Things you LEARN on the DIS!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I watched it and, really, didn't think the ingredients were that strange. I know people who've eaten goat, and know that it generally has the consistency of a very old animal. (i.e. you either tenderize the animal before butchering or you tenderize the meat after butchering or you cook it under high pressure for a very long time or - and this is the best option - you do as many of the above as possible!)

I've seen duck tongue before, somewhere, still can't remember where. Chicken testicles - well, there are baby chickens right? And testicles are testicles are testicles - if I had to guess I'd just cook 'em like any other chicken organs. Geoducks are considered a delicacy by a lot of folks, and aren't any weirder than clam or oyster or mussle (all of which I love).

Giant squid. . I have to admit I was a bit ewwwwww on that - I mean, I've had calamari that could've been used as a bicycle tire, so I wondered what they were going to do with that to make it edible, but apparently, it's not bad to work with!

And as for 'roo meat, we're only guessing, but DH and figure it must be just mildly gamey red meat, probably close to deer, which is easy to cook and tastes divine in the right hands.

I thought they were pretty fair with the ingredients, because even though the chefs might not have worked with that particular ingredient, it didn't mean they couldn't think about the animal and figure out a parallel animal that they DID know how to work with. (And it really surprised me that neither contestant knew how to work with goat!) Also, I mean, really, with Top Chefs reputation, if I were going to be a contestant, I think I'd at least have pulled down the 1962 Joy of Cooking and read through the chapters on exotic game and on seafood prior to the start of competition.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Chickens have testicles???

Boy chickens do

 

[Imzadi]

Chickens have testicles???

Not any more. Snipped for the show.

 

[TDC Nala]

And as for 'roo meat, we're only guessing, but DH and figure it must be just mildly gamey red meat, probably close to deer, which is easy to cook and tastes divine in the right hands.

Tastes pretty much like lean beef.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Tastes pretty much like lean beef.

People always compare buffalo to lean beef, and deer to lean beef, but I think they have their own texture and taste. Is it closest to beef, do you think?

Kewl. Will tell DH. Not that we're likely to eat it anytime soon. The wildest we get is home cooking. (DH's late father-in-law used to cook up a raccoon every now and again, and I've seen possum cooked and eaten, but that's as wild as I've ever gotten. . .unless you count rattlesnake, alligator, rabbit, squirrel and various game birds, but I don't.) Well. I can get some game at Whole Foods and anytime we're in Cabela's we eat at their little restaurant, LOL!

Although, DH is now consumed by the thought that 'roo bites might be every bit as good as bambi bites. . .where do you get kangaroo meat?

 

[JessicaR]

And testicles are testicles are testicles - .

Ever have Rocky Mountain Oysters? All testicles are not created equal.

Too bad I missed this show, maybe it will repeat.

 

[Imzadi]

Although, DH is now consumed by the thought that 'roo bites might be every bit as good as bambi bites. . .where do you get kangaroo meat?

Australia or New Zealand? You have to catch them as they land.

I heard, in certain areas, the front bumpers of their trucks & cars need to be fitted with kangaroo grills, because so many people keep hitting them. I asked, what's this kangaroo grill made of? A trampoline?

 

[kaytieeldr]

Ever have Rocky Mountain Oysters? All testicles are not created equal.

Too bad I missed this show, maybe it will repeat.

A Bravo TV reality show? There's no 'maybe' about it. I can almost guarantee it'll be on (yet) again at 8 PM Eastern, May 26, 2010. It originally aired May 12 - two weeks earlier - and while I'm 100% positive they rerun the previous week's show* in the slot immediately preceding the newest episode, I'm 98% sure they go back even further in the earlier time slots.


*While I don't have the slightest recollection WHAT the challenges were last week, please watch the rerun at 9 this Wednesday. The Chef who won both the quickfire and elimination challenges has chosen the National Scleroderma Foundation as her charity. I have a sibling who died from complications of this devastating but little-researched and little-known condition.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Ever have Rocky Mountain Oysters? All testicles are not created equal.

Too bad I missed this show, maybe it will repeat.

Well, point there. Bull Testicles are something special, by size alone. Of course, you don't often get them. . .

But still. They're the inard working bits of a chicken. Personally, all I know how to do for those is put them in dressings or add 'em to sausage, but I know people who fry chicken hearts and my own DM and one of my DBs eat chicken livers cooked the way any normal person would fry up a batch of small oysters. So, I would suspect you could fry up chicken testicles or maybe just boil 'em with a bunch of white wine and all the spices, then make a gravy or thicken it for something else?

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Australia or New Zealand? You have to catch them as they land.

I heard, in certain areas, the front bumpers of their trucks & cars need to be fitted with kangaroo grills, because so many people keep hitting them. I asked, what's this kangaroo grill made of? A trampoline?

Oh my word. Now I'm thinking that 'roo is just Australian/New Zealand roadkill that they foist on us dumb Yanks. Well, I've had really good deer that was just someone trying to find a silver lining on the dark cloud of a totalled vehicle, I suppose folks in Australia/New Zealand can't be dinged for doing the same!

 

[PrincessBelle39]

I can't say I've ever seen Kangaroo meat in the supermarket here. Not that I've looked for it but its not something that we eat as a rule. Maybe if you went out to a certain kind of restaurant, but I've not ever seen it on a menu at any of the places I've been to.