This is the sequel to this article.  Here are a few more profiles of the teams that tried out in DC. I had a lot of fun talking to these enthusiastic possible future restaurant owners and/or television personalities.

Paul and Antonio are an example of a team where it is obvious which team members are the front and back of the house.  Paul came off as very serious and said that they “Are looking to display professionalism and a fun atmosphere while using proper (French) techniques to create simple and spectacular food.  This would be farm to table, sustainable, and non GMO, with a Charlie Palmer atmosphere and attention to detail.” Antonio is very personable and positive and described himself as having an “electric personality,” saying that he would “endear himself to the customer and has an understanding of what it is like to be in the patron’s shoes.”

Carmen would be the front of house and Chris would be back of house, although both are chefs.  Their six year old son Ashton is in the picture with them.  It is their dream to have a restaurant, and they want to give back to the community.  They have an Asian fusion concept and their signature dish would be miso salmon.

JB and David are friends.  JB would be front of house and is active duty military, while david would be back of house.  JB said that they “work hard and want to make money doing it.”  They are both Texans, and their concept would be mixed-region barbeque with various sauce options.  Their signature dish would be brisket.

Burt (front of house) and James (back of house) are good friends, and they had a good vibe about them.  Friends introduced them too each other since they have similar goals and interests.  Burt was going to open a restaurant called “the Big Easy” and James was working at Taste of Carolina on U Street.  Their concept is sophisticated southern/creole, and their signature dishes would be “Millionaire Mac N’ Cheese” and banana pudding cupcakes.

Jen (front of house) and Caitlin (back of house) are roommates who have worked in restaurants for 16 years. (Maybe they mean in total?)  Their concept is home style comfort food (sort of like Paula Deen), and their signature dish is chicken a la king.

It was great getting to talk to all these teams, and I wish them luck in the competition.

-JAY

I stopped by the casting call for CBS News’ 24 Hour Restaurant Battle.  I had originally planned on trying out but the friend I would have been partnered with landed a last-minute day job, and couldn’t attend.  So, my friend Amy Melrose of Free in DC suggested I just go down there and cover it for DCFUD.  She even joined me there for a little while and got pulled in by the Nyema/Tommy tractor beam.

I spoke to over a dozen teams, so I’ll break this into 2 articles and cover some of the teams.  I was definitely interested in the kinds of people and teams that were trying out for this show and a chance to run a restaurant together.  There had to be an existing relationship (friends, family, etc.) between the team members.  I asked them if they have a restaurant concept and why they wanted to do this reality show.  Every team said having a restaurant was their dream.

Mauricio and Chef Jose Luiz Molina are two brothers who are in the restaurant business. Mauricio works for Busboys & Poets, and Jose Luis works for Kington Hotels.  If cast for the show, Jose would work the back of the house and Mauricio would work the front.  They are Bolivian, and have a top secret concept for Latin American Fusion.  They grabbed my attention immediately since they seemed friendly and approachable.   I spoke to them first, and they turned out to have a very friendly and comfortable vibe. They are a lot of fun to hangout with, and are very cool guys.

Lauren (back of house) and Maryam (front of house) were the next team I approached because they seemed vibrant and positive.  They are friends who met in college, and recently discussed a “joke concept” for a restaurant while exploring Spain and Portugal.  They were one of the few teams that didn’t have a “fusion” concept and didn’t use the phrase “with a  twist.”  Their concept is trendy mid-scale American, and would appeal to families.  A signature dish: meatloaf muffins AKA portable meatloaf.  Got ketchup frosting? Mmmmm.

Nyema and Tommy are friends and are very friendly and charismatic; they just draw you in, and this is the table Amy was at the whole time she was there.   I guessed correctly that larger than life and very expressive Tommy would be front of the house.  Nyema joked that Tommy is the “hot girl” on the team, and he added that he “sashays something fierce.”   Concept: American Food with French and African American accents.  Signature dish: Fillet Mignon with sweet potato puree, shitaki mushrooms, and a sweet potato twill.

Braddock and Tanya are dating, and Tanya and Dan are brother and sister.  Tanya would be front of house, Dan would be back of house, and Braddock could be either front or back.  They were originally going to apply as two teams that both included Tanya, but consolidated into one team.  They all work together at Costello’s in Kingston, PA.  Their food concept is new age soul food with an astrological twist in both the food and layout of the restaurant.  Pisces anyone?

Sandra (back of the house) and Silvia (front of house) Baird are Australian identical twins who spent part of their childhoods in Toledo (Spain, not Ohio).  They speak fluent Spanish and their signature dish is paella Valenciana.  I teased them about the matching outfits.  They had a lot of presence – they were outgoing, radiant, and in stereo!   They gave me a tip about trying the “dietary restriction” menu at P.F. Changs.  I know….Ray‘s gonna bust on me for that one…but seriously, have you HAD those grease-dripping tempura green beans at PFC?

-JAY

Jon Wye is way too thin to be as food obsessed as he is.  The man who brought you the Waffle Buckle (which he only has one left to sell) and Pirate Chef shirt, belt, and apron now has a shirt where aliens are eating the Capitol (reminiscent of To Serve Man) and he’s launching it with a special deal.  Jon is a regular at street fairs.

-JAY

“This cutie cute blue blob monster doesn’t want to hurt anyone.  He’s just taking his kids on a little intergalactic camping trip. In the morning daddy blob monster surprises the kids with Space Cakes (Translation: Pancakes), mixing the batter out of the dome of the US capitol, and using the Washington Monument as kindling.
With the new BREAKFAST AT THE CAPITOL t-shirt we are offering a ONE WEEK SPECIAL ONLY.  Buy the BREAKFAST AT THE CAPITOL t-shirt in either a men’s or womens, and you will receive a FREE 2009 Gooey DC t-shirt.  If we run out of your size you will receive a $10 off coupon for your next purchase.  (fine print below… I will accept first borns as payment)

Offer ends February 27th at Midnight!  HURRY!  AHHHHHHHHHHHH! (creating drama)

Cheers,

Jon Wye”

I’ve been a bad füddie. I’ve been working too much and being extremely lazy and cooking easy, no-effort-required crap for dinner. Finally, I heard the cries of my angry cookware and downtrodden stomach, begging me to spare them another night of steamed vegetables with yet another baked yam. Admittedly, the lack of yams at the farmers market this week may have helped. So, inviting mystery and the one-armed-bandit of Googling for recipes back in to our hearts, it’s time for another episode of … Adventures in Cooking Random Things I Found at the Farmers Market!

Today’s journey begins with:

2 pink yautia
1 poblano
A large thumb-sized (ok, two thumbs) hunk of fresh ginger
Cream (I think I used about a half cup, but your guess is as good as mine)
Hon-dashi
Fish sauce
Sriracha.

These brave ingredients undoubtedly began life somewhere more picturesque than their end in my cheap crockery, but their destiny was, after all, deliciousness and not beauty. I am absolutely not writing the rest of this recipe like that. Clearly I need to watch less TNT, whose knowledge of Drama seems to be catching.

The professor was basically no help on recipes, except to say that yautia cooks like taro, so I just made this up based on what I had. Here’s the dish:

Slice the poblano and start it caramelizing. Peel and cut the yautia into chunks, and boil it in dashi until soft (about 15-20 minutes). While that’s going, dice about 3/4 of the ginger, adding most of it to the poblanos pan about 2/3 through caramelizing. Toss the rest into the boiling yautia.

When the caramelizing is done – if you’re clever, this will be just as the yautia is done too – add some cream to the pan of poblanos and ginger, removing it from direct heat (you want the cream to get warm and absorb the flavors, not cook or scald). Drain the yautia, reserving maybe a half cup of the liquid. Put the yautia into a bowl and pour the cream-poblano mixture over it. Mash.

It should be a little dry right now, which is why you kept some of your dashi. To said reserved dashi, add a good bit of fish sauce and as much sriracha as you like. Also, mash your remaining ginger into the mix (I used a garlic press – you really want the juice!). Now, stir that into your mash to get the right texture…if it’s still too dry, you should have kept more dashi. Add diluted fish sauce instead. And probably more sriracha.

I will be the first to admit, it kinda looks like cat food, and by itself it’s not all that flavorful – unless you really went overboard on the fish sauce and sriracha. But the nice, subtle taste, served with a fried egg on top and a good sprinkle of soy sauce, is actually quite good. And, more importantly, I think it has real potential. Should I plan ahead at some point, this would be a really fantastic side for something powerfully-sauced, like steak-au-poivre or perhaps even a masaman curry. Or you could deep fry balls of the stuff to dip in spicy sauces…

-MAW



Received this email today:

-JAY

———

A new series titled FOOD WARS will be airing this Spring on the Travel Channel. Our host will be visiting cities around the country and learning about their iconic food dishes. Next up on our food journey: Washington, DC for the “Jumbo Slice” of pizza. If you’re a loyal customer of PIZZA MART we want to see you there on Friday, February 12th.

^{If you prefer your “Jumbo Slice” be from JUMBO SLICE then come and show your support there on Saturday, February 13th. No matter which side of the fence you may fall, we want you all together as these two restaurants face off on Sunday, February 14th (location TBD, but will be in Adams Morgan)!}

Please contact foodfancasting@gmail.com for more information on supporting either of these pizzajoints on camera!

I received this today.  May even consider this one myself.

-JAY

—————–

Hi there,

I am the casting producer for 24 Hour Restaurant Battle, Food Network’s new restaurant competition series from the producers of The Next Food Network Star.

We’re currently casting the very first season and would like to inform you and your readers that we’re holding an open casting call in Washington, DC on Monday, February 22, 2010.

The details of our events are as follows:

WASHINGTON DC OPEN CALL

Date: Monday, February 22, 2010

Time: 10am – 3pm

Location: Zentan Restaurant/Donovan House Hotel

1155 14th Street NW, Washington, DC

We are looking for:

• Two to five person teams with pre-existing relationships (brother and sister, mother and son, husband and wife, etc.) who would love the chance to prove that they can run a restaurant.
• A dynamic front of house and back of house duo. One person on the team will run the front of the house and the other person on the team will be the chef and run the kitchen. All levels of experience (culinary school trained to home cook, little or no restaurant experience to a lifelong career in restaurants) will be considered.
• Lots of energy and charisma! We’re seeking personalities that pop.

If you have any questions or need further information, please feel free to contact me or visit our website at www.24hourrestaurantbattle.com.

Thank you for your time!

Best,

Alena Jemas Casting Producer 24 Hour Restaurant Battle Food Network/CBS News Productions Office: 212-975-4125 Mobile: 201-415-8843 Email: jemasa@cbsnews.com