By A.J., Guest Blogger, Foodies Like Us

A.J. is 10 years old and in 5th grade. He had the winning raffle ticket at our Foodie Fight on March 6. This gave him the third judge’s seat.

When I got there, I didn’t know what to expect. So when I was picked from a raffle, I was so dumbfounded by two things; one thing was that I was picked to be the third judge; and the other was that everyone cheered. Imagine – two well known professionals in the culinary world and a kid – how much better can it get? A little while after I got picked to be the judge, the Foodie Fight began with the secret ingredient of blood oranges. I wasn’t too familiar with this different fruit, so I was very interested in what I was going to have. Almost immediately after everybody said start cooking, I started to smell all these amazing aromas. That’s when I had high hopes.

First up were the starter dishes. Team Posh made a spinach orzo salad with blue cheese, pine nuts, cranncherries, onions and citrus vinaigrette. I thought it played with my pallet because you get that bite of onion and blue cheese, then the cherries and the pine nuts balance it out. After I tasted that I went and tried the other starter dish from Team Christopher, a romaine lettuce tower with a fried cheese circle to support it. It also had blood orange slices wrapped in prosciutto. I didn’t get to eat much of the cheese or lettuce, but I did have the blood orange slices wrapped in prosciutto. It was really tasty because prosciutto is salty and blood oranges are sweet and bitter so the saltiness of the prosciutto and the sweetness of the blood orange balance each other out.  One of the other judges explained how the cheese circle was made, and I want to try that out at home.

A.J. surveys team Christopher's starter dish

The two entrée dishes weren’t as exciting as I had hoped because they both lacked the use of blood oranges I was expecting. Team Posh’s dish was lamb chops with roasted asparagus and a citrus barbecue sauce which had blood orange, pineapple juice and Maker’s Mark bourbon.  I was disappointed because the barbecue sauce was the only thing that had blood orange. The lamb chops were also a little over-cooked making them tough and chewy. Team Christopher’s entrée dish was a bit better, but not by too much. It was scallops wrapped in caul fat with lobster roe pasta sided with roasted asparagus and a small amount of blood orange butter sauce. I did enjoy the lobster roe pasta, but I had practically no sauce, which is a shame, because the small amount I had was really good.  The thing about the entrée dishes is that I love lamb chops (I had a few appetizers that were passed around before the judging, and they were awesome!), and I had scallops at Christopher’s a few weeks ago and they were delicious.

I was really excited about dessert because every kid loves dessert. The first dessert dish was Team Posh’s. When it I took my first bite, I was in heaven. The panna cotta was so fluffy, I almost thought I was eating yogurt. When I heard the emcee say that we look like we‘re having a good time tasting, I replied with,” I’m not tasting, I’m eating!” I mean, I couldn’t let it go to waste because the nuts gave it crunch instead of it all being fluffy. The blood orange reduction and the cran-cherries really brought out the blood orange taste. I was very happy with Team Christopher’s dessert because it brought out the sweetness and bitterness of blood oranges. The sweetness was provided by the soufflé, sugared blood oranges, and the powdered sugar. The bitterness was brought out by the orange peels at the bottom of the bowl. This dessert really did what I was looking for all along – it showed off the taste of the blood orange.

A.J. rates Blood Orange Souffle

In the end, Team Christopher won by one point, but I think I was the biggest winner at the Foodies Like Us – Foodie Fight. Not only did I get to eat great food, and have the best seat at the event, but I really learned a lot.  I learned about different food pairings to get the best flavors, I learned that cooking under pressure is much harder than I ever imagined, and I was reminded again that I really love trying new foods!  I hope I get a chance to do this again soon!