The Good Rabbi's Blog

My assigned protein was sea bass, and my assigned "country" of influence was southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, the Philippines, Malaysia/Singapore, and Indonesia). After some thought, I decided to pan-sear the sea bass, and then finish it in the oven. To go with the fish, I decided to make a coconut-curry sauce, with some vanilla in it (that's fresh vanilla) in order to add just a hint of sweetness. This fish would be served with some stir-fried vegetables done in Chinese cuts, with a saffron risotto (basically, a Milanese risotto with a few minor adjustments).

Everything went according to the plan in my head, and everything was done perfectly. Then disaster struck: I had to plate it. I firmly believe that there are two types of people in this world: those who have a graphical mind, and those who have an analytical/technical mind. I fall squarely into that second category. You can put a plated course in front of me, and I can tell you whether or not I like the plating, based on my now expert opinion, but I can't visually see the plating design for my own dishes.

Ultimately, I packed the risotto into a ring-mold, and unmolded it onto the plate. The baked fish was placed on top of the risotto, and sauced, leaving a nice pattern on the plate as well. In the plate's negative space, I added the vegetables (squash and asparagus) in a decorative manner, and topped the whole thing with fresh mango. Personally, I thought that it was a bit to yellow (the sauce was yellow, as was the squash and mango), even with the green asparagus, but I didn't have time to do something with a red vegetable for added colour.

I brought it forward, and the chef tasted every component of my meal individually. Then she tried the various components together. My only mark off (I came in second), was that my fish, by itself, lacked an Asian flavour. The meal as a whole was very good (and I agree, as I ate it for lunch that day), but I guess she was expecting every individual component to have some Asian influence. Photos of my masterpiece can be found in the photo gallery.