Male: One seasoned chef, three random ingredients, and three tough judges. It’s time for Stump the Chef. Today award winning chef Matt Weaver will set his creative culinary skills against his toughest opponent yet, lets see today’s random ingredients.
Female: Parmesan, strawberries, and anchovies?
Male 1: Now lets play Stump the Chef.
Matt: There is no way anchovies and strawberries can work together. But if anyone can do it, it would be me.
Male: And he’s off.
Male 1: Well Matt is just starting today off just full of confidence, kind of surprising, strawberries, anchovies and parmesan. I have to say this seems to be one of the toughest combinations he has gotten yet. Looks like he is dicing up the strawberries there, he has got the anchovies waiting by the side. Do you think he is going to be mixing these together today?
Male 2: Well I am so hung over today I really would not like to see that. The anchovies smell is about ready to push me over the edge. But if anybody was going to make this combination taste good together it is Matt. I have great faith in him. Does anyone have any booze, any alcohol, hair of the dog? I need help.
Male 1: With the strawberries and anchovies mixture cooling off in the fridge now it looks like Matt’s prepping to whip up some cream here.
Male 2: Yeah, Matt’s not really helping my hangover here at all. What is he doing with those leaves?
Male 1: That seems to be basil. He has stacked it and rolled it up; he is now slicing it up into thin ribbons. It is a technique referred to as chief ans odd.
Male 2: Ah from the French, to make rags.
Male 1: That’s absolutely right; I didn’t know you knew French.
Male 2: Matt really puts a lot of love when he whisks cream. I am very impressed with his technique here.
Male 1: So am I. You know he could have easily gone with a hand mixer or something like that, but Matt likes to really get in there and get his hands dirty, really get intimate with the food.
Male 2: If he is making cream, what I want to know is that pepper next to the bowl?
Male 1: That actually is that seems to be a black pepper and salt mixture and it looks like he is actually going to be adding this to the cream.
Male 2: I am totally confused here mix signals Matt, salt in pepper in a cream that’s going with strawberries and anchovies and parmesan cheese. I have no clue what’s going on anymore.
Male 2: There is nothing really to be confused about, Matt simply took the stuff, mixed it with the things, chopped up the other stuff, whipped up this thing, and now it’s all going into the fridge.
Male: Sorry to interrupt guys, but its time for Matt’s tangent.
Matt: Found all over the world in warm oceans. Anchovies are not naturally salty, but are salted for preservation. Romans used fermented anchovies to make a fish sauce which is very similar to sauces used in south East Asia. Morocco leads the world in canned anchovies. But Peru has the biggest catch by weight. Great in Italian pasta dishes and on pizza, anchovies provide a blossom of salt to any dish. My favorite dish is very simple, a rustic Italian snack, buttered bread, anchovies on top. Enjoy.
Male: Meanwhile back in the kitchen.
Male 1: And Matt is simply on fire now. His got the third ingredient from our combination today, the parmesan cheese. He seems to be putting it into some sort of ring mold there. He is got it on a cookie sheet with a little bit of parchment paper. My guess is we are going to see this go into the oven in a little while. His got the strawberries and the anchovies still chilling in the fridge along with that black pepper whipped cream. I have no idea how this meal is going to come together, but one thing is clear, Matt is very excited about this, just look at him go.
Male 2: And he needs to slow down. This is not safe; he is not using any of the safety devices normally associated with this process. Folks do not try this at home, you will hurt yourself.
Male 1: You know I am surprised to see Matt using the parmesan cheese by itself in this way. Don’t get me wrong I am not complaining being from an Italian family I am a big fan of parmesan cheese. But normally I figured he would have used this together with the strawberries to bolster one of the other ingredients.
Male 2: Hey you’re guessing how this dish is going to come out. I am guessing how long it is going to take to come back out of me after I eat it. I am not going to touch this one today, no sire. No thank you bob.
Male 1: Taking the parmesan out of the oven now, still no idea how this is going to come together, lets find out from the man himself, Matt, what can you tell us?
Matt: Well, I think they have it in for me today; they gave me anchovies, and strawberries. I am not going to make a dessert. So I went salty instead of sweet. The strawberries are acting as tomatoes today. I am acting like I know what I am doing. Got my parmesan crisp in the freezer right now, they are going to be really nice. I am hoping I can pull this together, but if the judges don’t like anchovies, there’s no way in hell. We’ll see.
Male 1: Well Matt sounds just as unsure about this dish as we are, we will just have to wait and see how he plates it and how it all comes together.
Male: It’s plating time.
Male 1: Starting off the dish with the parmesan crisps looking nice and toasty, it looks like Matt’s going to be using these as some sort of cracker.
Male 2: I need a glass of water already; there is a lot of salt going on in this dish.
Male 1: He is topping that off with the black pepper whipped cream that we saw him making earlier. And on top of that I am guessing we are seeing, yep the strawberries and anchovies, interesting mixture.
Male 2: Not something you want to eat in the desert.
Male 1: Capping the whole thing off with the chief no basil. Matt’s looking a little nervous, I got to say I don’t blame him.
Male: Oh my, its judgment time.
Matt: I was presented with parmesan, anchovies, and strawberries. So what I’ve done is I have marinated the strawberries with the anchovies, made a little salsa. I’ve made a parmesan cheese crisp, and I’ve served it with some black pepper whipped cream. I call it the strawchovie, cheese blitz. Try it.
Shawn: Wow, interesting combination. I will say I actually like the presentation. It looks very good on the plate. I do like the contrast in texture. I like the crispiness of the cheese, the creaminess of the whipped topping. All in all with what you did with what you had to work with, I really liked it. It’s not bad, not bad at all. I give you a pass.
Carlos: Well, I would say the writing was on the wall from the get go once I heard the three ingredients. Really hard to work with, you know there is a lot of salt in the dish, from the base the parmesan crisp. Salt in the whipped cream, and then anchovies as we know carry quite a bit of salt. The strawberries offset it a little bit maybe not enough. Personally for me I don’t think it was due to lack of your ability or your knowledge of food. I just think strawberries combined with parmesan and anchovies is really hard to work with so you’ve been stumped.
Rex: First it is a beautiful dish. I would be definitely pleased seeing this before I would eat it. However I felt like it was such an infusion, such an interesting fusion of flavors that they really all wanted to go there separate ways. So I am going to have to say the chef was stumped.
Matt: Yeah, but I tried. Thanks for being honest.
Male: Let’s tally the votes. How much wood would a wood chuck, chuck, if Matt got stumped?
Matt: You know what, I am not surprised I got stumped; I mean we are talking anchovies, and strawberries here. But it turned out pretty good, well better than I thought. One of three judges isn’t bad. I had fun; I hope you had fun to. Don’t be afraid of the kitchen, thanks for joining us. See you next time.
Male: That’s it for this episode, of Stump the Chef.
Male 1: All original show all on HD from Onnetwork.com.
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