The smoke has cleared from the kitchen stadiums of Foodie Fights battle #9: Rosemary and Kohlrabi. Our finishing position? The South Bay Foodies stand, perhaps not victorious, but certainly not defeated at a very respectable #3!!!
This was a tough battle from beginning to end. For many of the contestants and judges, kohlrabi was an ingredient that was unfamiliar at best. In the end, the creations that were presented for judging left the officials in a quandry as to which one should reign supreme. With the selection for number one being split, the reader vote came into play and seperated the champion from second place by only 16 votes. Wow! Talk about a close match.
You can read the judges responses to all of the participants over at Foodies Fights. Following are some highlights as to how the South Bay Foodies fared in the juding.
After picking his first and second place finishers, Brendan “BS” from Endless Simmer offered us an Honorable Mention saying “Mouthwatering. The rosemary mojito is a fantastic idea and these are some of the best photos of the bunch. If you’ll let me get up on my Top Chef high horse for another moment here, I think your only mistake was making a plate where both the kohlrabi and the rosemary were supporting players instead of stars.”
The second judge, Peggy from My Boyfriend Likes it so it Must be Good, just happened to be a super fan of pork chops and saw the inspiration behind our use of the rosemary and orange brine. She highlighted them saying “Now, I’m a really big sucker for a pork chop. This looked absolutely amazing, and definitely something I will have to whip up in the near future because I’ve been dying to have a good chop. ”
She also noted the use of uniformly shaped ingredients for our ensalada blanca and commented “I thought the salad was ingenious because it’s a surprise in every bite. I know a lot of people that nit pick at a salad and only eat the ingredients that they like, but with this salad, that was practically impossible and I liked that. Good job.”
With an honorable mention and a second place selection, we ened up with 100 points from the judges. It was you, though — our readers, friends, and family — that helped us secure the #1 spot in the popular vote! I’m gonna call that the most important win of the day.