PART 1 - RECIPE FOR DISASTER?
As many of my close friends and family will know by now - I applied and auditioned for 'Masterchef Canada' season 3 this summer - I just found out last Friday that I did not make it into the top 50, so my journey has come to an end, but it was quite the experience and now I can share it with you all.
After a disastrous effort last year, I was resolved that re-applying for the TV show just wasn't something I needed to do to validate my cooking ability. I took a 12 week baking course this winter that helped me gain so much more confidence in the kitchen and I feel I've become a much better home chef over the past 6 months because of it.
While watching the second season, my S.O. Scott and I had many "reality TV" type convos - where I would yell at the T.V; "I would never do that!" or "Why isn't she/he doing this?" or "that sauce is totally gonna split - calling it now", and Scott would often reply "well you could do this, you should be on this show" - what a sweetheart right?
But I was cool with not applying, and just being the Masterchef of my home.
Until I received an email from one of the producers asking if I was interested in throwing my toque in the ring one more time...
So after Scotty's constant nagging, I mean encouragement lol, I decided to take a crack at the application, so I filled it out online, and to my surprise (as I supplied no video) received an email from one of the producers of the show asking if I could call her to do a "phone interview".
I had a nice long chat with her one sunny afternoon about my food and my life and she advised me I would be receiving an email with information on the in-person auditions soon.
A few weeks past and I figured I didn't make the cut after all - when BAM! an email appeared in my inbox that read "This is your invitation to the VIP in person Masterchef Canada season 3 auditions"! BAM!
Super excited, I immediately started pondering on my dish to present to the panel of producers and tasters at the audition. The dish needed to be something that could be served at room temp and I was warned in my invitation that I might be spending the whole day at the auditions - so it had to stay good all day long. This proved to be quite the challenge for me as I'm more of a "cook it and eat it right away while it's awesome and fresh" type of home cook. (Isn't everyone?)
I decided I would do a dessert - which is not typically something I consider in my comfort zone, but I've learned a lot over the past year and gained lots more experience and confidence in my abilities as an amateur chef - plus the 12 week course at George Brown helped me significantly.
So I set out to do something creative and cool - a coconut and lime Bavarian cream with two sauces; mango coulis and raspberry coulis. (so simple and totally "me on a plate" right - INSERT MASSIVE EYE ROLL)
While doing my first practice run, I had the gelatin dissolved for the Bavarian cream mixture and it was ready for flavouring. Instead of adding lime juice which I thought might cause curdling I added some frozen kiwi instead as a last minute variation to my original plan.
BAD MOVE ROBERTS .
The frozen fruit came with a lot of extra water and my dish was soup. I served what I could to my family to get their feedback later that evening - luckily my family is both kind and honest and I knew what improvements needed to made.
As the week leading up to my audition rolled on, I still felt like doing the Bavarian cream over was the best idea but making it strawberry flavoured and cutting the mango sauce altogether (keeping it simple, and local, and "me"... tropical fruit, wtf was I thinking) . The Friday afternoon before the audition, it finally hit me that it's summer, duh, and a chilled dessert would not survive the day.
So it was back to the drawing board - I feverishly thought of my favourite, easy dishes - pork chops? salmon? What could I cook ahead that would hold up all day and still be tasty and presented nicely?
It finally hit me while browsing through my own blog that one of my most successful recipes to date has been the pistachio, cardamom and orange zest cake I made for my mom's birthday. I knew this could be a dish that I could 1. make the night before to ensure a good night's rest, 2. present easily, and 3. impress the tasters and judges.
As this is a recipe I borrowed from the Globe and Mail, I decided to put my own spin on it by flavoring the buttercream with orange instead of vanilla and using coconut milk instead of normal milk in the cake - which made it deliciously moist and luscious :)
I made the cake Friday night and though I knew it tasted delicious and looked pretty good, I was full of nerves and anxiety over the idea of having to get up early and go hang out with strangers while other strangers judged me on my food and whether I was pretty and/or interesting enough to be on TV. I told Scott several times that night, as I put off going to bed at a decent hour, that I was giving up. I wish I hadn't told so many people about the whole thing and I just didn't want to go - nope, not for me after all, don't need to do this, it's cool, I'm just not going, nope, nope, nope.
But I did.