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Unlike other weeks where we had a theme and created a dish, during our final week of Culinary class, we participated in Menu Wars; a competition where two teams prepare themed menus and foods to be judged.
Cubed, peeled, and de-seeded chayote
When we first began to plan out our menus and what foods we would include, we thought of a theme which originally was going to be colors of the rainbow, and picked foods from our specific food themes from the semester.
I chose my dish, winter melon soup, during the first draft of our menu, as we were figuring out foods that would go with our personal themes, our menu theme, and the general menu items, such as salads, drinks, or deserts. I wanted to make something that I hadn't already done in the kitchen, yet something that I was familiar with, so I decided on winter melon soup; a simple light soup consisting of chicken broth, winter melon, shiitake mushrooms, and green onion. I was inspired to cook this dish specifically, as it was actually one that my dad had made before, and a food that I enjoyed.
Although I had seen my dad make the soup, prior to cooking my winter melon soup for the judges, we had a test day where I was able to try out my recipe to decide if I needed to change anything. While I did note several things to change, I thought that overall, it went well.
First, I began my prep where I de-seeded and cubed the skinned Chayote, cut and washed the green onions, grated the ginger, and trimmed the mushrooms.
After the basic preparation, it was fairly simple; I heated water to boil the chayote for 15-20 minutes, where I then drained the water and replaced it with chicken broth, and heated it back up. As soon as it was at a steady rolling boil, I added the ginger and mushrooms, and let the ingredients cook together for another 10 minutes or so.
Finishing this dish, its reception was fairly well received, and looked visually appealing to chef and my peers, however it was clear to them and myself that there was too much pepper and salt added to the broth.
Because of what I and others had noticed, when I chose to do several things to include and leave out so it would hopefully taste better than it had. Firstly, I decided to add much less salt and pepper; only enough to taste, and let the mushrooms and chayote bring out their flavors. Similarly I decided to add less ginger, as well as making sure to de-seed the whole chayote and wash it, so the texture was more crisp and less slimy.
Chayote & Mushrooms
Cut and washed green onions
Team Maple Finalized Menu
Team Maple Draft Menu
Throughout the process of creating and finalizing our team menu for the competition, we started by having myself and several others fill specific roles on the menu, so that other members of our team could reflect on their foods and where they would best fit within our menu. Because of this, we had less of a draft phase, and moved faster into our final menu. Overall, I am very proud of our final team menu, and I feel that all of the recipes go well together visually and theme-wise. Not only did we follow our 'around the world' theme, but also focused our foods' ingredients around winter vegetables to match the season. While I thought we worked very well together as a team, in hindsight, it would have been more time-efficient to compile our dishes first, and then make small changes, rather than planning our foods around our chosen theme.
Soup prior to cooking
Winter Melon Soup cooking
Throughout menu wars as a whole, we worked together as a team as much as we could, and although we were able to help teammates when they needed, we each had responsibilities for our own dishes. Some of these responsibilities included finding and editing our recipes and understanding how to prepare our dishes. Other than that, we helped each other where we could as a team. Unlike other cook days where we were on our own, being on a team was a bit different, and much more helpful. Some team members required more prep or help with their dishes, and we were able to hep them. One example of this was when I was clearing dishes for our team, and somebody let me know my soup looked nearly done.
Another important aspect of our teamwork was in the presenting of our dishes to the judges. We delivered our food to them on boards, which required at least 3 people to help out in order to serve all 5 judges at once. In addition to this, I was also paired with Lucia and her Squash Risotto because our dishes paired together. Because of this, we had to make sure both our dishes were ready at the same time to go out, as well as us being ready to clear the plates together. Even before or after our own dishes were made, we were constantly helping out each other, including our classmates by cleaning the preparation areas, the dishes and boards, and aiding them to finalize their food presentation.
The inclusion of teamwork and more freedom of choice during Menu Wars, is what I think allowed it to succeed as a whole, and create such a fun and new experience. In addition to trying a new cooking format, I thought that Menu Wars was a great experience because of all the things I have mentioned, and was a satisfying culmination of all our work and learning together throughout the semester, in a friendly competitive manner.
I would say specifically pertaining to menu wars, some new lessons I've learned was that working as a team and having each other's backs can make cooking come out better and make the whole process more enjoyable; However, because menu wars was my final assignment of this course, what I took away from food wars is also part of what I learned from this course as a whole. As I reflect back on not only Menu Wars, but my time as a food writer and cook, I notice a change in quality of not only cooking but writing. Some lessons I've learned, is how I now know to cook red meat on high heat to achieve a sear, or how to convey my opinion persuasively without bias. These are just two examples, but there are more, some of which I have absorbed subconsciously. When it comes to using the skills I have learned as a food writer and cook outside of this class in daily life, I honestly believe there are countless uses. Everyday, people need to eat food and communicate, so as long these things remain a necessity, there will always be some way to use these skills.
Final Winter Melon Soup Plating
I adapted this Winter Melon Soup recipe by The Spruce Eats.
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 pound winter melon
4 shiitake mushrooms
2 cups chicken broth
2-3 slices of ginger
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 green onion
Additional Notes:
If winter melon is unavailable, you can use a whole cucumber instead; just keep in mind the flavor will be quite different. If you use cucumber, make sure you peel it, remove the seeds from the core, and dice.
To make this dish a bit fancier and more impressive, purchase a whole 8 to 10-pound winter melon; cut off the top, remove the seeds and pulp, and place the other ingredients inside. Steam for 1 to 2 hours.
To save time, while the winter melon is cooking, prepare the mushrooms and get them soaking.
Preparation:
Gather the ingredients.
Wash the winter melon. Remove the green skin, seeds, and pulp. Cut into 2-inch pieces.
Place the winter melon in a pot of water, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for approximately 20 minutes, until the winter melon is tender.
Place dried shiitake mushrooms in a small bowl. Cover with cold water, and set aside for 20 minutes to reconstitute the mushrooms. (unless already using fresh)
To the pot, add the mushrooms, chicken broth, and ginger. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer for about 20 minutes. Add green onion for garnish and serve hot.
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