About Last Night: Where My Nerds At?
Bantha Milk for our Star Wars themed Open Stove Night
Okay, so I learned something last night. I learned that not everyone is quite as big a Star Wars nerd as I am. Or, really, that maybe no one is as big a Star Wars nerd as I am.
Or at least no one who showed up last night for our Foobooz Open Stove May the Fourth Spectacular. I mean, no one knew the name of the Wookie homeworld. Only one of the chefs (and none of the crowd) was able to remember what Luke’s aunt and uncle on Tatooine did for a living. And I ended up bagging the sound effects contest completely. In the end, I could barely get the chefs to use the Force to identify spices by smell while blindfolded, and we were only playing that game because COOK’s insurance wouldn’t allow me to make them cook blindfolded.
But whatever. The food was good. And there were certainly plenty of drinks. Art spent last night documenting the dishes from Abe Fisher’s Joseph Howard and Felias Peralta of Marigold Kitchen via the Foobooz Instagram, so if you missed the fun live, here’s a recap of how it all went down.
Amuse bouche to begin, as always. At this point in the evening, no one knew precisely how we were going to be screwing with our two teams, but the general consensus was that it was either going to be a Cinco de Mayo theme (on el quatro de Mayo), or something to do with Star Wars Day.
In hindsight, maybe we should’ve just gone with tacos and tequila.
But anyway, Team Marigold came through with some beautiful one-bite ravioli topped with local morels. Team Abe Fisher brought along some brisket and did an everything-matzoh with pickled onions and dill.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFANqvzhP1C/?taken-by=foobooz
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFAOhenBP2r/?taken-by=foobooz
After that, we revealed the first secret ingredient: Bantha milk. The fact that almost no one in the room understood what Michelle was holding in her hands (or why anyone should be forced to cook with blue milk) should’ve been the first clue that it was going to be a rough night.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFAPBGhBP3n/?taken-by=foobooz
Still, the chefs managed. Team Abe Fisher got into the spirit of things, fully incorporating the blue milk (in the form of a lemon and butter sauce) into their dish. Team Marigold? They had a less easy time figuring out what to do with the milk.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFAReXFhP8F/?taken-by=foobooz
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFAR5HMhP8n/?taken-by=foobooz
Second round secret ingredients? A bit more easily identifiable: Star fruit, star anise and Starburst. Can you guess what the chefs did with them?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFAUdj2BPxP/?taken-by=foobooz
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFAY4W1BP5l/?taken-by=foobooz
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFAZ7hmBP7V/?taken-by=foobooz
By the final course, I’m pretty sure the chefs were tired of me screwing with them, so they were happy to put out some pre-planned desserts.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFAcS2ShPwB/?taken-by=foobooz
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFAczLIhPw7/?taken-by=foobooz
Yes… Because when left to your own devices, you offer the people a dulce de leche tube, but I’M the weird one because I made you cook with milk and starfruit (and Starburt).
Those rum-soaked pineapple chunks were good, though. As was the rum cake. Noticing a pattern here?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFAmkQdrMVv/?taken-by=audreyclairecook
When all was said and done, it was Joseph Howard and team Abe Fisher who took home the win by a narrow margin. Also, they were the only team who got even one of the trivia questions correct, so they kinda deserved it.
As for me, I learned that, in the future, it might be best to stick to simpler themes.
And maybe avoid blue foods altogether.
All Open Stove coverage [f8b8z]
