Male: One seasoned chef, three random ingredients, and three tough judges. It is time for Stump the Chef. Today award winning Chef Matt Weaver will set his creative culinary skills against his toughest opponent yet. Let’s see today’s random ingredients.
Female: Whole chicken, vanilla bean, and rutabaga?
Male: Now, let’s play Stump the Chef.
Matt: I have often fallen asleep dreaming of a savory vanilla dish, now I can make my dreams a reality.
Male: And he’s off.
Male: Doing it one more time in the Stump The Chef kitchen here with Chef Matt Weaver dazzling us in his culinary styling’s. Looks like he is jumping right into that chicken, breaking it down into its separate parts, you know you always want to be very careful with raw chicken. You want to make sure you keep everything extremely clean because, you know chicken does carry salmonella.
Male: Ain’t that the truth, you know I got salmonella poisoning once.
Male: Really?
Male: You know I was back in the navy and we had a couple days leave in Haiti and I went to this bar and I met this girl Dominique and she took me home.
Male: Whoa, whoa, I don’t think it was salmonella that you got.
Male: Uh, yeah it was she made me a chicken dish that was completely undercooked.
Male: Okay then, it looks like Mat has moved on to the rutabaga prepping that for the next step in the dish he has peeled it, chop it up, not exactly sure what he has in mind with this.
Male: I mean it made me really sick, but it was so good.
Male: Still working on that chicken, breaking it up, chopping up the rutabaga and putting those pieces into water, you know he does to keep the rutabaga from browning, much like a potato. If you keep it open in the air it will oxidize.
Male: A browning rutabaga is a bad rutabaga.
Male: Still no sign of the vanilla bean, but with the chicken and the rutabaga out of the way it’s clear that Matt has started out strong. Browning the chicken up on the stove now it looks like Matt has dredged in some flour and he is going to get a nice color on it.
Male: Oh, this is great I love chicken.
Male: You notice he is not frying it, there is not nearly enough oil on there to cook the chicken all the way through all the way. So it’s pretty clear there’s going to be another step involve in this recipe. No idea what that might be yet. But my guess is he’s putting these on the stove to cook the outside and get it nice and brown crispy color on that chicken.
Male: Well, we might be clueless where this is going but Matt is attacking that chicken like a prizefighter who needs to feed his kids.
Male: It looks like pars in a drill’s also going to be playing it part in this recipe, his peeled those up, he is chopping them and prepping them a long with an onion forward something.
Male: But what were those albino carrots?
Male: Those are parsnips, actually it cousin of the carrot, a little bit sweeter but very similar in taste.
Male: Why were they white?
Male: Well the thing with parsnips is they grow white as opposed to the Carrot which grows orange; because of the way they grow they grow white.
Male: Admitting your ignorance is the first step to gaining true knowledge.
Male: Huh, where did you get that?
Male: Bazooka Joe.
Male: Sorry to interrupt guys but it is time for Matt’s tangent.
Matt: Vanilla beans are produced from the flowers of orchids native to the state of Veracruz in Mexico. They need to be artificially pollinated by hand throughout most of the world so they’re very labor intensive. When first picked vanilla beans are green and odorless, then they are generally sun dried, steamed, and dried again. This process creates and intensifies the singular flavor of vanilla beans. My favorite vanilla recipe is simply homemade vanilla ice cream, enjoy.
Male: Meanwhile back in the kitchen.
Male: Throwing the parsnips and the onion back in the pot now, hopefully we’re going to get an idea soon of where Matt’s headed in this recipe, still not a clear idea. We saw him break down the chicken, we saw him brown that on the stove, we saw him prepping the rutabaga for something but still no real idea what part that is going to play in the meal.
Male: Well dye my hair red and call me Shirley MacLaine because I’m going out on a limb in saying that the vanilla bean is going to come into play very soon.
Male: Well that would be an interesting move, vanilla been in with the parsnips and the onion, he looks like he may be getting ready to put the chicken in the pot there and that is going in along with the parsnips, the onion, and the thyme and paragon, he put some bay leaves in there, coriander and parsley. He deglaze it with some beer. And then threw in some stock and some cream and there is the vanilla bean, finally the third ingredient of the day. And you were right he split that open and he is splitting that vanilla seeds directly into the mixture.
Male: Now that is extremely potent, isn't that correct?
Male: That is, that one vanilla bean should give it a very nice, strong flavor and the chicken’s going to finish cooking in this mixture now soaking in all those different flavors. This meal is going to be very rich and complex.
Male: If this meal was a person it would be Howard Hughes.
Male: And now we finally get to see what Matt has in store for the rutabaga. His mixed up some cornstarch with a little salt and pepper and actually some more vanilla bean.
Male: It looks like there is the deep fryer so that means he is making some sort of French fry I am guessing, and you know that makes me a happy man.
Male: You know I am surprised to see him add the vanilla to so many ingredients today, I would have figured he would’ve shied away from it a bit, Matt aren’t you nervous at all about using something was such a strong flavor?
Matt: No way, I am really excited about the vanilla bean. I have wanted to do a savory vanilla dish for quite awhile. I have worked with rutabaga before but never made French fries, I hope the judges like it, I hope I like it.
Male: You know Matt it may not sound 100% confident but you have got to hand it to and he is definitely excited.
Male: I love it when Matt gets excited, because I get excited and everyone gets excited. I’m just excited about talking about how excited I am.
Male: Please stop touching me.
Male: Its plating time.
Male: Off of the stove and onto the plate I have to say that chicken is looking pretty good.
Male: I don’t think so; it looks like a blind chef cooked up this one.
Male: You know, it may not be much to look at but we saw everything he cooked that in, it is going to have that wonderful vanilla accent along with those rutabaga fries which are looking crisp and incredible. You know this may be one dish which may not be attractive, but I guarantee you it runs deep with layers of richness and complexity that we cannot even imagine.
Male: Just like my second wife.
Male: Looks good to me but lets see what our judges have to say about that.
Matt: Today I was given a whole chicken, vanilla beans, and rutabagas, so what I’ve done is make a chicken vanilla fricassee, and vanilla scented fries. Individually the fries and the chicken are really, really good, but together they are exceptional, they are over the top. I have called this the French vanilla fricassee, enjoy and save me a little bit. Thank you.
Josh: I can definitely taste the vanilla, I taste it with the chicken, but I don’t taste it so much with the rutabaga but I don’t eat rutabaga. And so this is the first time I’ve had rutabaga and when I eat rutabaga again this is how I am going to have rutabaga. The chicken is very excellent and all everything came together really well, good job.
Susan: Overall I think the dish is fantastic, I think the vanilla is very subtle and I think that is the most important thing about it is that you didn’t hit us over the head with anything too strong or too sweet. The rutabaga fries are absolutely killer, super crispy, nice and sweet, perfect amount of salt, the chicken is very tender. I do think this last bit of green onion is one of the things that balanced the vanilla out very nicely, thumbs up.
Shannon: I’m sorry to say, but you asked us to save some for yourself, and there is no way I’m going to let you take any of this food because it is totally awesome. The chicken is delicious, the fries are amazing and there is just this kind of nice little bow on the top with the vanilla flavor kind of running through the whole dish and it is fantastic so back off.
Matt: Alright.
Male: Let’s see the verdict. Well mash my tatters Matt, you passed.
Matt: Today I made and exceptional dish. This may be the best dish I have ever created, not just here on the show, but in my entire culinary career. When I open my restaurant this could be a signature dish on my menu. I had fun, I hope you had fun, don’t be afraid of the kitchen. See what you can do when you are forced to be creative? Thanks for joining us see you next time.
Male: That is it for this episode of Stump the Chef.
Male: All original show all on HD from Onnetwork.com.
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