Top Chef ™
Baker:
Season:
Week:
Challenge Type:
Mushroom Trompo with Mushroom Pibil, Broth and Toasted Ants
Cesar: "I figure I'm making some sort of mushroom dish. I buy bacon. Let me think of other dishes that are cooked in fire. Oh, well, there's, you know, tacos al pastor. What about, like, cochinita pibil? So then I'm, like, going back and forth trying to, like, bridge those two dishes together with mushrooms. Oh, and pineapple."
Cesar: "I have a pineapple. I'm going to slowly roast it."
Cesar, talking to Tom while cooking: "I have chestnut mushrooms and lion's mane portobellos that were foraged. I'm going to use some ants."
Tom Colicchio: "Ants?? Did you forage those?"
Cesar: "Yes, I did. They were so yummy too. But I'm making a few things, so cochinita pibil. That's going to be my mushroom broth. Al pastor flavors with pineapple and a trompo, like slices of it cooked over fire. So I'm going to be fusing those two dishes together."
Tom, discussing Cesar behind the scenes: "Cesar, he is using ants. Interesting. But if you're going to go for it, go for it."
Cesar: "I'm planning on making adobo with some of these roasted veggies. I need to make an adobo that tastes like al pastor. My toasted ants, they're gonna be a garnish, but they're also gonna add a little bit of pop into the adobo. Picking through my little ants, trying to get as many as I can, because they are tricky."
Presenting to Judges
Cesar: "So today you're having mushroom trompo with mushroom pibil, broth, and toasted ants. There's, like, a little bit of fusion in between an al pastor taco. Also cochinita pibil with some roasted pineapple brushed with a dobo sauce made out of rose hips."
Judges
"I love the broth."
"Yeah, we love our soups. We eat soups when it's, like, plus 40."
"I like the presentation. I like pulling different textures and flavors off of a sprig."
"I got a lot of bitter right off the top. But then as you dug into it, the richness of the broth helped mellow that all out."
"It was completely dialed in. I'm going to remember that one. Nice work."
Cesar: "I was so happy foraging yesterday. I remember the first two things we tried were the rose hips and the ants. That's kind of where the idea started to hatch a little bit."
Judge: "You took one of my favorite ingredients, which is ants, and it is a challenging flavor and texture for some people to incorporate in the food. The way that it worked in your dish was fantastic."
Tom Collichio: "I've never personally cooked ants before. How did you do it?"
Cesar: "I toasted them, and I was apologizing to them at the same time."
Judge: ""My very first bite was a little, like, bitter in a good way. And then I just kept going in there, and then all the other flavors brought it all together and then brought us to you."
