Tournament of Champions ™
Baker:
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Charred Squid with Cremini Crispy Rice
Herbed and Charred Squid with Squid Ink Cremini Crispy Rice
Chef Dale Talde on his concept: "Mushroom, calamari, fried rice, and then I'll make it crispy like a crispy rice."
On inspiration: "What's inspiring this dish 100% is how I cook at home. I love crispy rice."
On squid ink: "When I see all these ingredients, I'm gravitated towards, like, squid ink. Lime juice, lemon juice? Because I think squid and squid ink, they go together."
On herbaceous elements: "This dish has to be really herbaceous." On his blended marinade for the calamari: "Marinade for the calamari."
On grilling the calamari: "I want to cook my calamari steaks on the grill because the keywords I'm linking into is steak. It's a really big piece of calamari. So how do I like steaks cooked right on a grill?"
On the salsa verde: "I'm going to make a salsa verde that goes on top. What's big in TOC is that if you can taste it, you also want to see it."
On keeping the salsa verde hand-cut rather than blended: "Some people like to puree them down, and I don't want that. You lose that integrity, you lose that kind of mouthfeel, and I want the judges to really taste that."
On plating: "I pull my calamari steaks off. They look fantastic, and I think the cook on them is perfect. I take dollops of my squid ink aioli and dot that around and then a little bit more salsa verde on top so they feel that herbaceousness."
Voiceover (Justin Warner): "This is a herbed and charred squid with squid ink and cremini crispy rice. It is accompanied by a raw cremini salsa verde. For the blender, we have a marinade for the squid. The blender was also used to craft a squid ink mayo. In terms of herbaceous components, not only is there that blender marinade, but the salsa verde contained Thai basil, lemon juice, chives, cilantro, and Fresno chilies."
Scott Conant: "This is delicious. I love the flavor development inside this dish. The textural contrast. I love the usage of the cremini as well. The rice itself with that squid ink aioli is wonderful. That great crispiness, real nice depth of flavor. It's not too much fishy flavor. Squid ink could be a real challenge sometimes."
Marcus Samuelsson: "What I love about this dish is the balance, right? And there are many different techniques used here. Really well done, chef."
Nancy Silverton: "This is delicious. The only thing that I think it lacks is I do not taste any bit of the randomizer in this dish. When I saw the word blender, I know that there was a blended aioli, and yet I guess I expected to see something more visual about that puree."
Post-result, Scott Conant: "Any other given day, that dish would have won its round. The cooking was that good." Score: 87.
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