Miller - Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook

THE QUICKFIRE COOKBOOK FOREWORD BY PADMA LAKSHMI TEXT BY EMILY MILLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANTONIS ACHILLEOScheftestant \shef-test-ent\
(noun) One of the contestants appearing on Bravos Top Chef. The genesis of the term is hazily credited to multiple television bloggers. Text copyright 2009 by Bravo Media, LLC., a division of NBC Universal.
Full-page food photographs copyright 2009 by Antonis Achilleos. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. The page constitutes a continuation of the copyright page.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available. eISBN 978-0-8118-7589-9 Design by Vanessa Dina, Anne Donnard, and Catherine Grishaver.
Full-page food styling (recipe images) by Jamie Kimm and Alison Attenborough.
Full-page prop styling (for recipe images) by Marina Malchin. The recipes included in this book have been re-created from live cooking events on the Top Chef television series with some modifications for the home cook. The information in this book has been researched and tested, and all efforts have been made to ensure accuracy. Neither the publisher nor the creators can assume responsibility for any accident, injuries, losses, or other damages resulting from the use of this book. Photographs, except all full-page food photographs, are courtesy of Bravo Media, LLC., a division of NBC Universal Chronicle Books LLC
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No other exercise, no other endeavor, brings out a chefs culinary voice more so than the Quickfire Challenge.

Each morning before filming, I wonder, What will they pull off today? Who will do well, who wont? It is the most suspenseful and nerve-racking part of the show, and also the highlight of my job as an eater and as a thinker on food. Why is the Quickfire Challenge the best part of Top Chef? Why is it my favorite time in the Top Chef kitchen? Why is it the part of my day at work I most look forward to? After all, no one goes home for a bad Quickfire, right? It is because the Quickfire begs the most visceral, instinctive, immediate, knee-jerk culinary response from our cheftestants. It comes from that quiet place in each chef that is shaken awake with the adrenaline-fueled intensity of the time-pressured challenge, that place that is the inner core of what a chef is really about. Since we usually film the Quickfire in the morning, I tend to skip breakfastalthough there can sometimes be a two- or three-hour delay before I eat. But I always try and come in hungry, to give our cheftestants the full audience of my appetite. The thing I love about our Quickfires is that it is the most succinct way to get to know how a chef thinks and acts when they have no time to second-guess themselves.

Anyone can cook when youve researched, planned, and plotted about ideas, spices, cooking methods, ingredients, and flavor profiles for hours on end. But what will a chef make when he or she is asked to work with instant rice, just thirty minutes of time, or only $10 worth of groceries? How will he do when he is asked to immediately translate a childhood fantasy with only ingredients found in one aisle of the store? Or how will she fare when she has to make an omelet with one hand literally tied behind her back? Most of us do this in our daily lives, probably not with one hand literally tied, but perhaps with one hand hanging on to a child, or a BlackBerry, or both. We have six friends coming over unannounced and only some sad zucchini and canned tomatoes with a half a box of dried couscous and... voil! After a little Quickfiresque scrambling, Tuscan Papa al Pomodoro reinvented with a Moroccan twist. Ive actually written many of my recipes this way. I call it MacGyvering in the kitchen after that TV show where the title character can make a bomb out of a rubber band and an old wine cork.

But our heroes and heroines mostly come from a professional environment, where creativity is cushioned by a well-stocked pantry, a vast array of mise en place, and restaurant-caliber imported ingredients at hand. THE QUICKFIRE FORCES OUR CHEFTESTANTS TO DO, IN A SENSE, WHAT WE DO AT HOME ON MOST NIGHTS. AND THAT IS WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT: TAKING THE FRUITS OF THE CREATIVITY AND TALENT OF OUR CHEFS AND BRINGING THEM HOME TO YOU. It shows you how to make some of the most beloved and wackiest recipes weve all salivated over (vending-machine treats anyone?), and deconstructs them for us to reproduce in the home kitchen without the enormous pressure. Many cheftestants are stymied by the Quickfire Challenge and for good reason. No matter how hard it looks on television, as the one person who is there from start to finish, I can tell you it is much, much harder in real life.

Theres not much room for meditation, and the palates subconscious must take over. You have to be in the zone and let the gastronomic spirit move you. And move you fast because I will usually be scooting in to tell the chefs they have five minutes before I say put your utensils down and your hands up! Which, by the way, came about quite naturally around the last few Quickfires of the Los Angeles season. I am the only judge to taste every single thing cooked on the show, and I often find myself rooting for all the cheftestants to perform well in front of whatever culinary heavyweight is before them. In fact, at times, my nerves are worse than theirs, something akin to an overzealous parent at the national little league finals. Since filming my first season of Top Chef, its been a joy to see how many people, young and old, love the show, many recounting stories of their own Quickfire exercises at home with their loved ones.

In my book, whatever gets kids thinking about their food and involved in the preparation of it will make them healthier eaters for life. And lets face it, anything that gets the family to break bread together is also a good thing. So, while no one at home will ask you to make a dessert using Diet Dr Pepper, isnt it nice to have the recipe just in case?

A line of young chefs files into a spotless kitchen. The mood is somber, the music ominous, as if they are readying for a police lineupor maybe a firing squad. It is early morning: some of the chefs are sleepy-eyed, and all are buzzing with anticipation because the glamorous Indian woman standing before them in sexy jeans is about to announce the next Quickfire Challenge. What will it be today? Create an entre using ingredients from a gas station mini-mart? Cook a trout dish for star chef Eric Ripert using a camping stove? Participate in a chaotic team relay race to see who can supreme oranges and whisk mayonnaise the fastest? Whatever the contest, you know it will be an all-out, tongs-to-the-wall show of grit, skill, and creativity.

Sure, anyone can turn out fine food with adequate time and top ingredients. But only someone with exquisite talent, speed, and nerves can fashion something not only edible but delicious under the tightest of constraints. One of the things that sets Top Chef and other Bravo shows apart from most of the genre of reality television is their focus on creative talent. The cheftestants who jump through extraordinary hoops every week have incredible skills, and we get to watch in amazement as an ever-dwindling number show us what they can do under intense pressure. For every Quickfire Challenge, host Padma Lakshmi explains the drill, calls time, and the cheftestants take off running. If they dont make it to the fridge fast enough, all the proteins will be gone.

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