On the cruise ship they had a throw down like show where two guests pair
up with a couple of the kitchen chefs and do a challenge. I was picked
and teamed up with the assistant sous chef. The other contestant worked
with the pastry chef.

The first thing I noticed was that the chefs used Foreschner knives just
like the ones I have in my kitchen only bigger. Wow! that felt good!

There were trays of meat, fish, sea food and vegetables to choose from.

My chef team mate and I made a dish using filet mingon and seafood. We
called it "surf and turf in creamy basil sauce a la Infinity) I added
the Infinity as that was the name of the ship. The chef was impressed
that I knew to turn the beef on its side to brown it. We flambeed the
beef in some awesome Napoleon brandy. I insisted they pour me a glass. :-)

Our team won because we had the best presentation. That little sous chef
had to place every baby vegetable on the plate with tongs in just the
right spot. He was almost OCD about it, but it won for us. I had to
explain that my DH's idea of "presentation" was "knife, fork, plate and
food" so I wasn't very much into placing baby veggies in esthetic
positions on a plate.

I got to keep the paper toque which is pretty lame from being packed in
a suitcase and I won a bottle of nice champagne which we had chilled and
shared with our table mates in the dining room that evening.

There are photos, but DH took them and he's the guy who pushed "menu"
the first two days he used this camera, so I have to really Photoshop
them to get something visible.

Anyway, I thought y'all would be proud that one of the RFC gang was a
"top chef" on a cruise ship.
--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.