Top Chef ™
Baker:
Season:
Week:
Challenge Type:
Chilled Chicken and Licorice Soba
Katianna: "I haven't worked with licorice knob. I don't know how strong it is. So I'm going to get some licorice candy as well as some Pernod, which is a licorice liqueur."
Later ... Katianna: "There's not much flavor. It's kind of hard to get it out. The licorice root is not very flavorful. I'm really struggling to extract some flavor from this licorice root. I really need to take a look at the candy and the liqueur I bought and decide how I'm going to incorporate those. I have candy. I'm glad I got it. I'm going to use the candy and try to make a vinaigrette."
Later still ... "Does my dish taste like licorice? As I toss the cucumbers and the sauerkraut with this licorice vinaigrette, it's getting lost again. It didn't really release a lot of flavor. I decide to reduce some Pernod licorice liqueur, and dress my noodles with it for some extra Licorice flavor."
Presenting to Judges
"This is a chilled chicken and licorice soba with cucumber and daikon. I made a broth with chicken and the licorice root, and the noodles are tossed in a reduced pernod."
Judges
"This was a dynamite dish."
"Really subtle and elegant."
"Tossing the noodles in the reduced Pernod was a really smart way to bring that anise flavor forward. The broth is so rich."
"That's a lot of developed flavor in a very short time."
"Katianna's dish is intentionally made to be cold for the dish to work, and that's why I think it's so successful."
