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RECAP: BROOKLYN CHEESE EXPERIMENT

September 13, 2009

The results are in. It's all over. We're not eating cheese for another week. In fact, we may steer clear of dairy products for a while. The event was lengthy, chaotic, exciting, pungent. It was filled with friendly people and their tasty creations, messy hands and not enough napkins. For YAH, the drama started before the competition did, when our chef was nowhere to be seen.

Cheftestants in the Brooklyn Cheese Experiment were instructed to come to the Bell House one hour before the event, at 12 pm. Like good friends, Seth and I arrived on time to help Chef Frankie, but the man was missing. By 12:30, chefs and their friends were standing loftily by their stations, colorfully decorated with posters, tablecloths and salt and pepper shakers. Without the food and our charismatic young chef, our table was a very cold wasteland. I snuck away to avoid being associated with it. It looked like this:

At 12:53, Theo, one of the co-creators of the event, made an announcement: "Chefs, please have your shit together in seven minutes. Please, please, please get your shit together in seven minutes." Unfortunately, we didn't have any shit to get together, but planned on serving Frankie raw when he arrived. 

At 1pm Frankie mercifully decided to stop by, bringing with him his Vespa Mac N Cheese.Vespa, which means "wasp" in Italian, inspired the dish, made with sepia (squid-ink) pasta, Red Stripe caramelized onions, hog jowl, fontina and cheddar cheese, and a pinch of smoked paprika. Like the stinging creatures, the pasta was black and yellow, and had a bite to it. 

Vespa Mac N Cheese

Almost immediately after his arrival, the doors opened and a herd of hungry people formed a line. There were seventeen different food stations and a number of homemade beers to sample before the ruling at 4 pm. Among our favorites were our neighbors, who made a flavorful Italian style enchilada, a sweet homemade ricotta cheesecake, and of course, Frank's smokey Mac N Cheese. We didn't get to sample everything, but took note of the offerings. There were a few Mac N Cheeses, a lasagna, a blue cheese pop-over, a savory goat cheese tart, a "NY Bagel" with homemade ricotta and blue fish, mini hamburgers with roquefort mayonnaise, cheese biscuits and tomato soup, "polenta sushi" with mozzarella, and an Indian cheese with homemade bread. Yum.

.

Italian Style Enchiladas

Cheesy Biscuits and Cold Tomato Soup (1st place judges ruling)

"Righteous Burn" #12 (1st place audience ruling)

My plate, before it got soaked in cheesy grease.

Frankie, working it.

So many people! 

By 3:30, like some other competitors, we were running out of food. We told whoever was manning the station to follow a strict rationing plan: one noodle per customer. Frankie fed his remaining noodles, which someone mistook for string beans, to the last person, and waited for the results.  

After a very long speech by Theo and a much shorter one by Nick, the co-creators and judges announced the winners. We were so focused on the food this time that we didn't pay attention to the home brew results. We did, however, hear that Squirrel Tail won second place by the judges, or the audience, we're not really sure. Also, I can't remember the names of winners or some of the results. Apologies.

Judges Ruling:

1st Place: Cheese cracker and tomato soup.

2nd Place: Cheesecake

3rd Place: Cheese Puffs

Audience Ruling:

1st Place: Righteous Burn

2nd Place: Tomato Soup and Cracker

3rd Place: ?

We were disappointed that Chef Frankie didn't place in the competition, but not discouraged. This was Frankie's first time competing; he's just warming up. In other news, the popular internet show, Frankie Cooks, is scheduled to return.

Posted in FOOD on September 13, 2009 6:15pm by Jena Steinbach | 165 comments

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We are young (early 20's) and hungry (for knowledge! music! art! food!) friends living on (or in areas which border) Manhattan. We moved to the city seeking higher education, and an alternative to frat parties and gin buckets. We prefer a bottle of Chianti to a keg, lunches at City Bakery to a dining hall, Joe's to Starbucks, Frankie's Amatriciana to Batali's. Our uniting factor is our love for food. For detailed, personal information, keep reading.
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