Going to The MasterChef Junior Kitchen from Memphis

The Beginning - From Memphis to Hollywood : MasterChef Junior Season 2

Walking in Memphis on a kid's food journey!

You may know I am on the cast of MCJ (MasterChef Junior Season 2 on FOX) and you may be scratching your head as to how a then 11 year old kid would want to take on the famous Gordon Ramsay and Graham and Joe....

Well lets go back in time to when I was little, I loved playing with fake food, real food and had my own restaurant going when I was like 5 or something. Someone gave me one of those order pads and I was all set. My plastic Kitchen was my favorite toy!

My Mom let me do real stuff too. I started making coffee when I was like 2 and I had a bench pushed up to the counter. I used to have a cook knife that could not cut you, but it could cut real food and I had a metzaluna for chopping veggies when I was 4 or so.

I made my first recipe for the JIF most creative sandwich contest when I was 9 and that won me a trip to NYC. I went on tv a bunch with my recipe and it was really fun. I got so disappointed I did not win the grand prize that my Mom suggested that I enter another contest and I won.

This was the Epicurious Healthy Lunch Challenge. I won a trip to Washington , DC and the chance to eat in the WHITE HOUSE. MRS OBAMA hugged me and the PRESIDENT shook my hand!

THAT is huge, I mean you can buy a trip to NY, but you can't buy a trip into the White House for dinner.

I created my own spice rub between the two trips and started packaging it for sale to raise money for Cub Scouts. It is cool to have my own spice rub and small business. I have a few blends now. I love blending up new flavors.

Then I heard that there was a Judging Class for our famous Memphis In May World Championship BBQ contest. I thought I could do that, and with a little help from the organizers, I got into the class. At the end of the training, I passed the course!

My Mom challenged me to make something for The Spam Cookoff at the Fair and I did pretty good, 2nd place. It was a play on a reuben sandwich and was pretty tasty. I got a fun Spam hat and Apron. I don't usually wear a hat, but, it was for a photo op.




I then got an email asking if I wanted to be in a cookbook called FutureChefs - I mean really- Of course I did, so I went into the kitchen and whipped up a new recipe and made it into the book- Page 168 if you want to check for me.

Of course, you see my Blog, I have had it up for about 3 years. I started it to do writing assignments in school and it just has grown and grown. It is fun to have, but it requires lots of work. I did get my review in the local paper and I have been recognized as a food blogger! Both really cool. It also let me get entrance into the Association of Food Journalist convention in Memphis and that was a blast!

I guess, I always have had chefie goals and dreams- food makes the most exciting journey!!!
So get in the kitchen and mix up some fun!

Love the Cabbage Leaf
Logan Masterchef Junior Contestant

PS. I forgot some of the work I do for people who are hungry- might have to be another post!

WORLD SERIES - MasterChef Junior Style

I can tell you, I love to travel and I can be ready in a NY minute, so when an email came it with a chance to go to the World Series the next day, I said yes. Then I was off to pack my bag, and headed to Kansas City!   

I met up with MCJer Jess and we then met up with Graham Elliot and that is when the fun JUST started!

Interviews and cameras. I finally got my apron and I felt awesome.

I mean it is WORLD SERIES on FOX and Masterchef Junior is on FOX. While I have no idea why they chose me as the one of the kids to go, I sure am not complaining.

Graham Elliot is just great! He is so nice and funny. I still have his autograph from last year and the letter he wrote me, but riding on a golf cart is WAY more fun! He talked to us about serious stuff like grades and discipline and cooking: Psych - he just really let us have a lot of fun! 

He even got Jessica and I each a Kansas City Royal Hat and Foam Finger! I mean it really! How cool is that!!!

The game was great! That 2nd inning gave the Royals a huge lead and the crowd was so loud it was a blast! I had to stand for most of it cause those fans were crazy excited!!!

Now this is the insider tv part- they filmed us like we were there for game 7 not 6 and we will be on TV on game 7 instead of yesterday!!!

I think this is my most surprising blog ever- still shaking my head how a dull old Monday turned into a World Series Tuesday. 

Thanks Graham Elliot for an awesome, cool, fun, exciting, once in a life time experience. Thanks Fox and Fox sports for letting it all happen!

Love the Cabbage Leaf,

Logan

GO ROYALS!!!!

The Quest for the best sushi continues.

Sekisui

On my quest for the best sushi in Memphis, I always drive by this little midtown sushi place and always wonder how good is the sushi ????

Well, not to long ago I tried Sekisui, its an older sushi restaurant. It is slightly fancy but still casual. They have some nice music playing, overall pretty zen feeling, it had some wear on the tables, but it was still nice.

I looked at the specials and saw 2 pieces of prime tuna Nigiri and uni Nigiri. So I went out of my usual sushi and ordered a half order of the special.

I also ordered 2 pieces of tuna, and 2 pieces of salmon Nigiri. My Mama ordered Gyozo and I ate the miso soup and salad.
Mama thought that the dumplings were very good and that they were  the best dumplings in the city!

The miso soup was pretty much like all the other miso soups, but it had a better type of seaweed in the soup.

The salmon was good quality, a little stringy, the prime tuna had a better flavor than the normal tuna. It tasted fatty, yet succulent but again, a little stringy.

The tuna was very delicious, perfect, not stringy, not fishy, just perfect in all aspects, easily complemented by the wasabi and ginger.

The uni was very fresh, and tasty I have had bad uni before and it tasted like avocados, but this uni was sweet nicely flavored, well balanced but the texture was a little to weird for me.

Definitely one of Memphis's higher end sushi restaurants.


Love the cabbage, Leaf
Logan

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The Ultimate Meat Extravaganza Texas de Brazil

Texas de Brazil is downtown and it is fancy. It is known for the endless meat, it just keeps coming endlessly. I think it is an Brazilian steak house. The guys who bring the meat wear gaucho pants and are always carrying meat.

They have a huge salad bar in the middle of the restaurant with tons of yummy things to eat with the meat - like olives, cheeses, black beans, the chimichurri sauce and, well, salad.

I LOVE to go. Normally I don't eat much meat but at Texas de Brazil the meat is so good, I get stuffed. I really enjoy the flank steak, the sirloin, the ribs, the sausage, the lamb, the fillet and sometimes even the chicken - basically all the meat. It is all  really delicious. I even like how they will bring it out and cut your pieces for the perfect temperature for you. I like medium rare. I think they brine it first to make it tender and juicy.



Dad likes to go for lunch instead of dinner because it is a bit less expensive and he has all day to get over eating all that MEAT.

So if you want an endless array of yummy roasted meat in a super cool atmosphere with great sides this is the place for you and ME!

Love the Cabbage Leaf
Logan

PS. I really like the blue glasses and the meat!
Just so excited I forgot to take the photos!

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"Cook Wanted", so I applied - The Nina and The Pinta

It was a beautiful fall day and I went on a field trip to the Nina and Pinta down on the Mississippi
River. I saw a sign that said "Cook Wanted", so I asked for the job, but I had to be, sigh, 18.

I talk to the crew on how terrible the food was and how they needed a good cook. I felt kinda sorry for them, so my Mom said I could bring them dinner. I was all set to smoke some pork anyway, so I decided to give them a good Memphis Style BBQ meal. They were the guinea pigs for new seasoning blends I have been working on, but don't tell them!

I smoked a pork shoulder with my own blends, some sausage and some chicken. It tasted pretty good. I also made my own BBQ sauce to go with the sandwiches. We cooked up some beans and made some slaw.
I got my Dad to drive down to the docks to deliver the dinner. When all the prep work came together, we got to make some great volunteers very happy. The crew of the Nina and Pinta are unpaid, so they don't get to taste much local cuisine.


I got to go into the hold of the Pinta and it was cool. The galley is tiny, the hold is tiny, everything is tiny, and it is the bigger of the two ships! Now that made it a field trip! As a thank you they gave me a hat and an awesome postcard signed by the crew!

This may seem really crazy, but it an absolutely positively true story, just ask the crew!



Making people happy with food.

Love the cabbage leaf,
Logan

Pizza King Longview, TX from Post MasterChef Junior Auditions Season 2

One of the best things about doing the audition in Dallas for MasterChef Junior Season 2 was getting to visit my cousin Michael in Longview TX. He was in college there and I got to see the campus and it was all really cool.

We took him out for dinner and you might not know this, but Longview is a small town. We asked Siri the best place to go and she said Pizza King.

The inside was really cute with all kinds of vintage cars and trucks. It had a 50's diner feel and I liked it.  

Relaxing after MasterChef Casting

I was not expecting much in terms of the food. I mean it is a small town and all. But it was really good. We got some salad and ordered maybe 3 pizzas. We wanted to leave Michael with some extra food. You know he is a college guy and probably always can find a friend to share pizza.

I enjoyed the pizza. It was fresh, cheesy and well a pretty good pizza!
Michael liked it too, and when he told his Mom where he was, she told us that is the first place she went on a date with Michael's Dad. Michael had never been so it was kinda fun to think about his Mom and Dad having pizza at the  Pizza King.

So it you are road tripping through Texas and get hungry- Try it!

PS I did not take and pictures of the food sorry! My cousin Michael was there and I just was too excited to take them!

Love the Cabbage Leaf,
Logan

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Pizza King