On April 23rd, I was asked if I would like to enter a challenge hosted by the National Restaurant Association called the "Hot Chef Challenge", running through May 7th.
There is no Grand Prize of a new shiny BMW or $50k a year for life, simply 2 nights hotel accomodations in Chicago and a few hundred dollars towards airfare and the chance to appear onstage for an hour. The winner of the "Challenge" will appear at the NRA's Annual Food Show in Chicago on Saturday, May 17th and have an hour to demonstrate their culinary prowess.
Those that know me, realize that there is rarely a challenge I will pass-up, besides I absolutely love to cook for a crowd and it's been a while since I've had the opportunity to visit Chicago. So this challenge certainly caught my attention.
The official rules call for entrants to produce a 2 minute video cooking a dish which incorporates a food item and an alcoholic beverage from the NRA's Hot List 2008 and then to post the video on Youtube.com. The ingredient part was a piece of cake with so many great things to choose from. I decided to prepare my Bangs Island Mussels with IPA, Lime, Jalapeno and Cilantro.
For those who have ever tried to prepare any dish in 2 minutes, you realize that this is a near impossible task. To attempt to do this on video is 100 times more difficult.
Anyway, I have assembled a somewhat choppy "non-professional" video and have posted on Youtube.com.
In the NRA Hot Chef official rules, it states that once a video is posted, other Youtubers then have the opportunity to vote a "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" on the various "Hot Chef" entries videos. The video with the most "thumbs-up" votes will be deemed the winner and that chef will be invited to Chicago.
Being brand new to Youtube, here is where it gets a little fuzzy. Apparently, Youtubers can vote by use of a "star" system with one star being low and 5 stars being high. In addition, Youtubers can cast "thumbs-up" & 'thumbs-down" on comments left about videos by other Youtubers but I cannot figure out how anyone is supposed to cast an "up" or "down" thumb for a particular video.
I posted my humble attempt at a video on April 30 and in only 2 days have had over 200 views of my video and have receieved a number of comments and now some of those comments have "thumbs-ups". I was surprised to see that when I posted the video, I was the frist to do so...as of this morning there is now a second video.
It's a bit depressing to realize that being over 50, I am such a techno infant. I would greatly appreciate any insight from fellow Gather members who understand this whole Youtube thing better then I.
For those that care to check out what a choppy, non-professional 2 minute cooking video looks like, please check mine out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LWrIfB2baU. A "thumbs-up" vote would also be greatly appreciated...that is, if you know how to give one!!!
Thanks,
Chef John
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Comments: 5
PS - Was that a mustache????
I learned to cook mussels ove 30 years ago, and then, all mussels had to be soaked to disgorge their sand and scrubbed to remove debris from the shell. Nowadays, would it be accurate to say that all mussels that come debris-free have no sand and do not need the soaking step? I've noticed that the ones with clean shells also have less beard and it is easier to pull out.
Your video is excellent, and does not come across as amateur. Excellent job! I rated it a 5 and gave thumbs up to all the positive comments (all of them). I hope you win, and I hope to read more of your articles here.