I used to play a game with fellow home cooks and chefs way back in the MySpace days (but we called it Virtual Iron Chef… I feel like it’s more like Chopped, but I guess the name doesn’t matter).
Anyway, the way it works is you are presented with a list of ingredients. You create a tasting menu using those ingredients. Each ingredient must be used at least once, and each course must contain at least one of the ingredients. Menus can consist of 3 to 6 courses. Anyone who posts a menu gets to compete. Voting takes place over 2 days. Obviously the sooner you get a menu in the more potential you have for up votes.
Note: Rule above about number of menus and time limit were modified to better accommodate people submitting menus and giving people time to vote.
People vote by upvoting the menu they like the best. After the alotted period of time a winner is selected. The winner then gets to select a list of ingredients (the winner cannot compete during this round) and the game continues.
Would anyone want to play? Here is an example:
- Lamb
- Trout
- Ketchup
- Rice
- Tarragon
- Egg
- Blueberries
- Caramel
- Spinach
Amuse: Onsen quail egg. Togarashi. Hollondaise.
Appetizer: Yuzu cured trout. Tarragon and sesame oil. Crispy shallot.
Main: Spicy lamb lap chang. Sichuan dusted lamb chop. Ketchup fried rice. Fried spinach.
Dessert: Custard ice cream. Blueberry sorbet. Soy sauce caramel. Tarragon crumble.
Great! I’d say a day is fair for menus (or when we get 5 menus, whichever comes first) and another day for voting. I’ll pin the post until someone wins.
I wasn’t clear, my bad. I meant time to cook the dishes. Like chopped gives them an hour or something. This can greatly impact the recipes and techniques chosen. Not needed though! Just curious.
Ah, OK! I don’t know that there’s really a way we could work that in, unless someone looked at each dish and decided if something could be made in a certain amount of time or not.