Cook of the Week Challenge: Recipes deserve a spot at your table
Just for the record Twizzlers weren’t my idea.
Months ago, even before we knew which 16 cooks would battle in the third annual Cook of the Week Challenge, I was told we had a sponsor who wanted Twizzlers to be in a mystery basket. It seems Twizzlers are a trademark of sorts for Marquardt Buick: buy a car, get a pack of the licorice-like candy.
My heart skipped a beat. All along I’d been promising would-be contestants that this elimination-style competition wasn’t going to be like Food Network’s “Chopped” where the chefs — professional chefs, not home cooks — have to pull together dinner with beef tongue, parsnips and butterscotch.
Since we started this competition back in 2011 my goal has been the same: to introduce cooks to new ingredients and new ingredient combinations. I want to show people that if you look inside your pantry and refrigerator and think a bit outside the box you can pull together a tasty dinner with oats, cod fillets and dried currants or lime gelatin, flank steak and cucumbers.
Our cooks dove into the mystery baskets with open minds and open palates. Lori Witorek turned cauliflower, which she’d shunned during grocery trips, into a pleasing Cheddar Bacon Cauliflower Casserole. Carrie Shawala took farro, an Italian grain she’d never heard of, and cooked it like risotto. Tina Garrett worked acorn squash into a filling for ravioli and a twisted tiramisu that included a beer-infused caramel sauce.
Their creativity amazed me every week and I hope it amazed you too.
In today’s special section we’ve collected many of those recipes. One of the criteria the judges considered is that the recipes had to be approachable; something you could recreate for your family. I hope you’ll take a crack at some of these recipes. Maybe Dan Rich’s beef tenderloin with Twizzler-port sauce won’t end up on your appetizer buffet, his finale-winning Chicken Rollups with Portobello Mushroom and Red Wine Reduction certainly deserve a place at your holiday table.