Welcome to the return of City of Ate's The Box. Somehow, we got Spoon Bar & Kitchen's The Mr. Chef John Tesar to agree to take our The Box challenge. We even got Cafe Momentum's The Mr. Chef Chad Houser to help us pack The Box with the perfect, high-quality ingredients. Spoiler alert: Tesar kicked The Box's ass. Who knew Flavor-Blasted Goldfish could be so elegant?
The Challenge: Create two dishes that could be added to the Spoon tasting menu, using the ingredients in The Box.
Ingredients in Tesar's The Box: Goldfish (Flavor Blasted, cheddar) Caviar (in jar, locally sourced from Kroger) Giant Jar of Pickles Breaded Fish Nuggets (frozen, sustainable?) Grape Gatorade Breakfast sausage (frozen) Swedish Fish Fish Sauce Clam chowder (chunky)
The Rules: You must use every ingredient in The Box. You must complete the task in two days.
The Results: Tesar created the first dish, and enlisted the help of his pastry chef, The Amazing David Collier, to create the second dish for this challenge. Here's what it looked like (it all tasted like a really nice hug):
Get yourself to Spoon Bar & Kitchen ASAP. Tesar could make the trash from Black Eyed Pea dumpster taste like a freaking delicacy. You would eat it, you would love it, he would reveal that it had been trash in a previous life, and you would continue to eat it. Your face deserves Tesar's food. Get thee to the Spoon.
