The Taste: the play-at-home game!

So, I don't know if you've been watching reality TV lately(yes I know, how can you possibly avoid it?), but my beloved and I have gotten into watching The Taste. Its concept is simple: chefs are chosen based on their ability to cook up a tasty dish. Seems simple enough, right? You have an hour to cook a dish, portion out a single bite of it into a spoon, which will then served to a well-known chef who knows nothing about you, your cooking abilities or your dish except what they see in front of them and what they put in their mouth. I love it - and it might be because I love that Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson are both judges...

So my beloved and I proposed a sort-of cooking contest between the two of us. Two rules: We had to serve the dishes up in spoonfuls like those on the Taste, and we had to use what was available in the house. This last one may seem weird to you, but our contest took place on a Sunday night, 2 weeks after the last groceries had been done, and we were running dangerously low on staples like bread, milk, and eggs. Also, when we decided to do this, we gave each other the time until the contest to research and plan our meals, which came out to 2 days. 

Here are our dishes:

In the blue corner(my beloved's), sauteed fennel with Ricard, lemon and parmesan

Also in the blue corner(his two appetizers), fried pasta with red peppers and edamame 

(At this point, we both deemed his pasta to be much blander than his usual fare, so he refried it with some sundried tomato pesto. This really saved the dish, but because he had already presented the first version, this version was disallowed. Yes, we're that strict.)

In the red corner(mine), spiced tomato soup with salt & pepper croutons and mozzarella

Also in the red corner, blue cheese puffs (These were a total failure and looked REALLY bad, though they tasted okay. I think, having reduce the recipe so drastically, I must have screwed something up. )

In the main course category, the blue corner proposes roasted butternut squash with a balsamic reduction

and filet mignon with blue cheese on toast, with pan dripping

In the red corner, the main course consists of potatoes Anna(layered with butter and parmesan)

sauteed red pepper and garlic scapes

 and finally chicken, spinach and roast garlic hand pies

For dessert, in the red corner, we have deconstructed mixed berry pavlova

and in the blue corner, upside-down almond-stuffed dates(sometimes you have to turn things on their head to get a better result!)

By the end of the evening, having tasted and cooked most of the night, we were both stuffed, and neither had the energy to declare a true winner. What do you think? Who won?