Sizzling at Fisher and Paykel

What a hoot!  Last week, Fisher and Paykel hosted our design team for a friendly “Iron Chef” competition at their corporate showroom in Mississauga.  Not only was it a fabulous opportunity to sharpen our culinary skills , but we also got to cook up a storm using their state of the art appliances.

Their in house Chef, Astrid was on hand to lend her expert advice and of course to add a twist to the evening.  The group was split into 2 teams (the black team and the blue team) with the mandate to prepare  4 dishes each using a common ingredient in each dish – oranges!  Each team was given 15 minutes to plan (and scheme – after all we are a competitive group).  We were able to use any of the food items  they had on hand – talapia, chicken breast, yams, coconut milk, and white asparagus to name a few.

I have to say, for someone who loves to cook.. the pressure was on for our black team!  Wow, just an hour to whip up 4 dishes…. could we do it?  As we started furiously slicing and dicing our plan came together.  Grilled asparagus and eggplant with a balsamic orange glaze grilled on the DCS pro style barbecue (DCS is Fisher and Paykel’s pro style line of interior and exterior appliances), talapia cooked to perfection using the Aero Broil feature on the F&P oven (a fabulous feature – once the fish is cooked you’d swear it was grilled on an open flame with its crisp exterior and moist center), chicken breast stuffed with cheese, basil,mushrooms and Dijon topped off with a roasted pepper cream sauce with orange zest and finally, an orange herb cheese garlic pasta.   We plated just in the nick of time -well,  maybe five seconds to spare.  Whew!  Now we could take a look at what our competitors had conjured up.  Blackened Cajun style chicken with an orange marinade, expertly cooked vegetable stir fry with orange zest, sumptuous candied yams and la piece de resistance:  cranberry scones with a lush orange chocolate sauce. Scrumptious!

Now that all the hard work was behind us we could enjoy the fruits of our labour.  After enjoying all the tasty morsels, the judges deliberated…and the winner was… the blue team with 24 points!  We had a very respectable 23 points! Congrats to everyone – a job well done!

Special thanks to the fabulous team at Fisher and Paykel and of course their superstar chef, Astrid!

For more information on Fisher and Paykel appliances and DCS appliances check out their website @ www.fisherpaykel.ca