The opening of the Young chef Olympiad was so much fun. There were some speeches and some flags and some dancing... lots of dancing. The girls were all dressed in the most colorful costumes and the music was vibrant and exotic. I mean you don't see this stuff on Dance Mom's.
I gave a speech too- I had one carefully memorized but in true Logan style I went rogue and made it all up!
The Young Chefs are the best of the best of the best of the best of the best of the best....
Even though it was unexpected and almost all of the planners had a come apart it still worked out great.
Now enough celebration it was time for the competition to commence.
I know people think I can't or shouldn't judge but I am super serious about it. I have a fresh perspective and I know how I would cook something and defiantly how it should taste. I look for confidence, body language, nerves, and more, not going to give out all my secrets.
I lot of people think that since i am still a kid they can sway me with friendship or bribes but ultimately what matters the most is whats on the plate, if you want to be the best of the best you have to impress the best of us watching. I was honored!
Then we hopped on a Spice Jet plane named Parsley and took off for Bangalore, the Garden City.
The IIHM group there really out did themselves to welcome us! Flowers Drummers, sunshine and Koti rolls. I loved it! My friends there even found me a most adorable suvi a Tuk Tuk toy! How nice is that?!
Sadly, I was there just one night and back to Spice jet to head to Kolkata.
Love the cabbage,
logan
India Continued
When you go to India it is easy to forget great moments like having lunch on a rooftop overlooking the Taj Mahal. I am not sure why?! Maybe because it is so VIBRANT... or SPICY...or INDIA
Eating on that roof was just as incredible as it sounds. The meal was also quite delicious. The lunch was themed like the Munghals liked to eat, with a lot of different bowls of curries and other tasty treats. My favorite curry was the Agra special lamb curry close second was the pannier cheese tomato curry it was kind of a mix between a curry and something I don't know, but it was really, really good.
The lamb curry was layered with flavors and the dish showcased the regional nature of Indian cooking, with the pannier curry it was just the immense lusciousness of the cheese and how the tomato-ish sauce complemented the entire meal. Here is the list of all the little dishes, Agra lamb curry, chicken curry, pannier curry, dhal, some really good cauliflower.
Now, on to the inside the dishes they were the cake ball dessert, a dipping sauce which was creamy and slightly sour, some tandoori chicken, fish, and lamb. You know there is a lot of food if there is a list within a list.
Also there were three types of naan bread the original a chickpea version and a spinach one. Over all the meal was a perfect way to start an adventure since there was a little bit of everything.
This is when you discover that India is a land of diverse food and OMG SWEETS. In the USA we only get some little balls, the dry milk cake, and rice pudding- but in INDIA sweets rule the land.
In Agra the local sweet is a white pumpkin. They cook and crystallize it an amazing way that it is 1/2 dried fruit and 1/2 fried fruit I think I really dont know. I loved the small triangles stuffed with beetle nut and rose but we brought home just the plain sugared pumpkin.
Enjoy these photos and check back - I still have to share Bangalore and Kolkata!
Love the Adventure
Logan
These are small videos I made that are no more than 6.5 seconds, that are posted on Vine. Hope you like them. I better publish before Vine Vanishes.
I have not made one in a long time but I just loved the idea.
Here's my Vine: https://vine.co/Logan.Jr.Chef
Hey, Guys..
I just revamped my blog to fit my growing personality and so that means some major visual freshening up.
The premise is still on food, restaurants, recipes and a tablespoon of travel.
I am also considering starting a photo blog but I still don't know if and when that would happen.
Thanks for sharing the journey and and the support.
Love the cabbage
Logan
IKEA
The long wait is finally over, Memphis has an IKEA! No more going to Atlanta for all those cute and well planed kitchens.
Ikea is huge. Well, it's bigger than huge, it's massive and filled with everything you need to live(excluding a cat tree) including a Swedish market and mini restaurant. All this inside a furniture store, crazy. I think I could survive the apocalypse in there.
It is really hard not to give the Swedish food a try, there are two restaurants one in the front and one hidden inside. I ate in the hidden one. I had the legendary meatballs, a cup of chicken soup and shared a salad plus the special juices. Mom got the marzipan dessert. The meatballs were tasty and just really classic. The sides were mashed potatoes, lingon berry jelly, roasted vegetables and gravy overall it was a nicely composed simple, classic dish with nothing to dislike. In retrospect I should have gotten the extra side of meat balls. I could have eaten another scoop and managed to eat some of Mom's. I was surprised how juicy the meatballs were cause they looked rather dry.
The soup was ok and the salad was fresh. It was just a salad. Mom had marzipan dessert and said it was good.
I really really want Ikea to redesigned my kitchen and help tame the chaos with all that organization and innovation. I mean it they have the coolest kitchen stuff. I loved the non electric mixer, and those pull out drawers. Some teens have slept overnight inside of Ikea all though that is not approved it still sounds like fun. When you live in 100 year old house the kitchen is a dinosaur compared to the IKEA design.
Shoot me an email with your favorite IKEA item so I can go pick one up too!
Love the Cabbage Leaf
Logan
The food fanatics are a fanatical group of Chefs that are supported by US Foods.
US Foods supplies restaurants with food, silver ware, cups, cook tops, prep-stations, and basically everything else a restaurant would need to operate.
There are only 31 food fanatics and they know how to rock and roll!
Chef Jeff invited me to go to the Us Foods convention in Roanoke Virginia and do a demo.
This might not seem like a big deal to a lot of people but if you want to be a Chef it is amazing. At the conference there were lots of cool products, I saw a lot of plates that I liked and there was a whole line of sustainable bamboo paper plates. They had the US Food lines as well as some cool local products and even some specialty foods like New York bread.
They had meat, seafood, deli products, bread, appetizers, and most importantly the new products US Foods is offering. They had bone marrow, stout onion rings, and beer cheese with pretzels and a lot of other higher end food items.
It was very interesting to see where food trends are heading in Virginia, like the new grass fed beef rib eye and beef burgers it is nice to know that food is going to a more sustainable and tastier way.
I met a lot of really cool chefs and got invited to be an honorary food fanatic!
That is me a Food Fanatic!
I know, I have been ignoring my blog and my writing is a bit rusty, ok a little more than just rusty!
Logan
