Top Chef Tour

Yesterday I took my daughter Riley to the Top Chef Tour.  It is a free event that is traveling throughout the country.  Each stop has different chef’s at it.  Our stop had Richard Blais and Hector Santiago hosting.  Richard demonstrated some amazing cabbage wraps using his sous vide method of cooking chicken.  I was amazed!  I am a huge fan of Top Chef and have always been intrigued by the sous vide cooking method that they use.  Essentially, you vacuum pack the chicken with just salt & pepper…then stick it into this sous vide machine that is full of water.  It cooks the chicken perfectly!  The wraps were awesome!  You can purchase the sous vide machine here, and if you mention Richard Blais you will get a discount!

He also mentioned some of the up and coming ingredients that you will slowly see becoming staples in the average home cooks kitchen.  A few of them fall into the Umami category…you know the 5th taste that has recently been discovered that we have (in addition to sweet, salty, bitter, and sour).

Black garlic.  This had such an amazing taste!  No stinky breath either.  It almost had a balsamic vinegar taste.

Fish Sauce.  Not just for Thai cooking anymore.  In fact, Hector uses it to cook his Latino dishes!

Thai Spice.  Again, not just for Thai cooking.  He sprinkled some of this on our cabbage wraps & also made a sauce with it.  Yummy!

If get a chance to catch the Top Chef Tour in your city…GO!  It was awesome!!  Here is a picture of Riley & Richard together!

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