Waiter, my soup is cold!

In the mist of the most humid, hot and sticky mid-summer in recent memory I’ve decided to undertake the daunting task of making a heaping handful of chilled soups. Not the few I’ve done before, and nothing that obviously won’t sell. It is ‘daunting’ in that chilled soups don’t seem to go over very well. Not just now, but in the past I’ve seen beautiful product go into a soup that is absolutely mind blowing delish, and it sits in the cooler with a stack of cold plates next to it rotting away. Not this summer, and not on my watch. I’ve already started this week. So here is the recipe scaled down for home use…..


Chilled Peach Soup

Six peaches
Half cup sour cream
Quarter cup each lemon juice and honey
Half cup orange juice
Four ounces peach schnapps
Salt and white pepper

Start by peeling the pesky little sticker off the peaches and then remove the pit. Everything goes in a blender for a few minutes. If there isn’t a dusty bottle of peach schnapps under you sink look for one or two of the tiny ‘airline’ bottles at your local liquor store. Be sure to serve ice cold.

I'm so over Top Chef

I know there was a time when I had an opinion about every little happening on Top Chef, and then again on Top Chef Masters. But I’m so over it now. A second season of TC Masters came and went. A new season of Top Chef D.C. is three episodes in and I can’t stomach watching a full episode. What changed, me or them?

I will start by saying that I’m a huge fan of Marcus Samuelsson. His cookbook, Aquavit is to this day one of my favorites. He has a unique take on cuisine, a truly global one. I’m very happy for him, his staff and his family that he won Top Chef Masters. On the flip side, I’m slightly glad I didn’t see any of it. Taking someone who has spent a life time mastering a craft and giving them half the time, half the tools, and shoving a camera in their face does them no justice. For a really cool look into great chef’s and their kitchens I’ll just have to keep watching ‘After Hours’ on Hulu.

As for Top Chef D.C. I’m not even going to temp my nerves. Put away the bow-ties, the fake glasses, the bandanas, the piercings, and don’t make an effort to show off your silly tattoos. It’s kooky carnival, these people are more and more looking and acting like they should be running the traveling circus or the county fair. Their food is a mess. The judges have expectations that are most times unreasonable. And once again the ‘challenge’ of Top Chef is to handicap these chefs by way of time, tools and space. It’s old. I guess that always was the gimmick. Think about some other contestant shows, even non-food shows like American Idol. Those contestants get the best stage, lights, equipment that they ever used before, most likely. Even the evil screamer of Ramsey puts a chef in a proper kitchen. What if Iron Chef said bye to kitchen stadium and put Bobby at a hot dog stand?

It looks like I am the one that has changed. Top Chef always had the personalities and the human drama, but I’ve seen enough of it. Every season they will find another 14 people to be on TV, and every season people will watch it. Heck maybe even I’ll stop being so stiff and watch and episode for old times sake. But you won’t find me caring much about it.

Ahhh the 70's

I saw this headline on a friend's blog and with the change in weather the past few days I just assumed he was talking about the tempurature, but no!