Congratulations to this week's winners!
Loulies won the contest for Your Best Fig Recipe with Fichi Caramellati.
Sonali won the contest for Your Best Stew with Olives with Braised Moroccan Chicken and Olives.
We asked them both to answer a few questions about cooking and eating.
Describe a food memory that has influenced the way you cook or think about food.
Dinner parties, loved when my parents entertained. It was 1970’s retro.
What's something you could happily eat every day?
Authentic Mexican.
What is the best meal you ever had?
Italy – homemade truffle pasta.
Describe your most spectacular kitchen disaster.
Both gamey meals: one turkey on the grill that turned into a ball of fire and one freshly-shot duck that I completely miscalulated the timing on.
What's your favorite thing about your kitchen? Least favorite?
Favorite thing: small and organized. Least favorite: microwave.
Apron or no apron?
Always a very cute apron.
What's your favorite food-related scene in a movie?
Audrey Hepburn at cooking school in Sabrina.
What do you listen to (if anything) while you're in the kitchen?
Bohemian mix: a little rock, a little indie, global pop and African.
You prefer to cook: a. alone, b. with others
Both.
When it comes to tidying up, you usually: a. clean as you cook, b. do all the dishes once you've finished cooking, c. leave the kitchen a shambles for your spouse/roommate/kids to clean
clean.
Always clean as I cook because a messy kitchen is never inspiring.
Describe a food memory that has influenced the way you cook or think about food.
When I was growing up, my parents always insisted that we all eat dinner together as a family every night. As my parents cooked, my sister and I would do our homework at the kitchen table and then we'd all sit down together and have our meal. These memories have stayed with me, and despite our busy lives, my husband and I always make time to sit down and enjoy a nice dinner together.
What's something you could happily eat every day?
Macaroni and cheese- it's been my favorite since I was a kid and there are so many delicious ways to prepare it.
What is the best meal you ever had?
The Farmer's Feast tasting menu at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
Describe your most spectacular kitchen disaster.
I competed in the Sutter Home Build a Better Burger Contest last year, which aired on the Food Network. Part of my recipe included deep frying onion rings in a saucepan on a gas barbeque and I was using a candy thermometer with a rubber handle to monitor the temperature of the oil. I closed the lid of the grill to get the oil to heat up faster and a minute later, I saw a huge fire coming from my grill. It turns out that the rubber handle from the thermometer had melted off and fallen into the barbeque! Fortunately, the Food Network cameras didn't catch the incident and my burgers didn't end up tasting like burnt rubber!
What's your favorite thing about your kitchen? Least favorite?
Favorite thing: my Santoku knife ; Least favorite thing: what all NYC residents hate- lack of counter space!
Apron or no apron?
No apron.
What's your favorite food-related scene in a movie?
The scene in "Spanglish" when Adam Sandler's character makes the most mouthwatering BLT sandwich with a fried egg and cheese. In the DVD extras, they show Chef Thomas Keller teaching Sandler how to make it.
What do you listen to (if anything) while you're in the kitchen?
I usually have the T.V. on tuned into the Food Network. Sometimes I play music- usually a mixture of R&B, pop, and hip hop with some 70s thrown in.
When it comes to tidying up, you usually: a. clean as you cook, b. do all the dishes once you've finished cooking, c. leave the kitchen a shambles for your spouse/roommate/kids to clean
a. and c. (I try and clean as I cook but at the end, my husband finishes up the dishes and tidies up!)
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