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This is Day Four of the Style-Off, a grueling battle to beautify the likes of a helplessly brown, British dessert. After Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks, Sunday Suppers’ Karen Mordechai, and Todd Coleman of Saveur each stepped up, we finally throw our submission into the ring.
In classic competitive style, we were hoping that going last would boost our confidence some, the idea being that seeing the first contestants flop would set the stage for our perfect, glimmeringly stylish shot. The first rounds of results would be subpar at best, full of mangled toffee puddings with their tepid, monotone brownness still peeking out from under a forcefully styled background. We thought we’d be ahead of the game.
This did not happen. Nothing even remotely close to this happened.
What we saw instead, to our horror, were the contestants making beautiful the ugliest dessert we could think of. There were cozy, mouth-watering shots from Heidi Swanson, and homey, process shots from Karen Mordechai. Todd Coleman even put sticky toffee pudding in a négligée for the occasion. In a négligée. These people can style.
We’ll admit: our virtual knees were a bit shaky after seeing the submissions, but as they say, the game must go on. So then, without further adieu, consider the curtain lifted on our submission.
Results, Day Four
James Ransom, our lovely photographer, stayed true to our clean aesthetic, and let the toffee speak for itself. We think it does. (We’re trying hard to bypass our bias on this one, we promise). Who gets your vote for the stylish of them all? Come back tomorrow for the official decision, where you’ll get to decide who is crowned winner of the Style-Off.
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