Gastropost says farewell

I have been blogging for over 5 years and somewhere along the way when I first started I came upon something online about Gastropost and how people were posting photos from Mission Challenges that the people at Post Media/The National Post were  creating each week. I thought it would be a fun thing to do to post my photos to the online community and join others.  I thought it might be fun to see if my photos got published in the National Post once a week from a selection of the photos that were posted online by a growing food loving community.
For about 5 years I posted photos of food I made and food I ate at restaurants and events around town and shared them with the Gastropost community.

This was probably my first post that got into the newspaper.  I was told I was the only one at the time that included myself and a friend in the photo.  That's because it was so new I didn't know exactly what everyone else was doing.  Mine is the 4th image from the left in case you can tell my popsicle stuffed face.

I never imagined what it would grow into and how it would affect my life.  In about 5 years they created over 240 different weekly challenges and I probably submitted photos for over 200 for sure.

My photos were probably published in the National Post maybe over 60 times.  I lost count but the first time it was published I ran out and picked up the Newspaper because I thought it was such a cool thing.

My dentist who is also a family friend commented about seeing my photos in the paper and my cousin thought it was the coolest thing.

I have even had people come up to me at events and know who I was because of seeing my photos in the paper because they were accompanied by a sketch of my face that Gastropost would create for everyone at the beginning that would be posted under the photo along with our Twitter or Instagram handles.

The Gastropost team would organize events at restaurants in the beginning and I can remember going to Little Anthony's for the first one and meeting the team at the time and them knowing who I was and presenting me with a Gastropost pin to wear so that each of us could meet each other and know who we were in relation to what was posted in the online and in the newspaper.

There were a handful of events where we got to know fellow Gastroposters face to face and the most notable one was for the 100th Mission that was held at a now defunct huge restaurant on Jarvis Street.  Our Gastropost sketches were posted on the walls and on tables around the restaurant.  There was a screen posting live tweets and a presentation of some of our work.

There was also contests to win things like Food Movie tickets, tickets to Food events and things like a Chef apron and a smart phone which I won.

But most of all I met some really great friends because of Gastropost and at a Tea Party that I hosted in my home recently someone pointed out how many of the people were Gastroposters.  I think there was about 6 of them.  I didn't even think of that when I invited them.  They were just my food loving or blogging friends.  

That's the thing that happened.  From posting random photos online to having life long friendships in real life.  

I am truly sad that it is the last week for Gastropost because it has brought so much creativity and friendship into my life.  It has challenged me to seek out interesting food and create more interesting plates of food.

I will miss the Gastropost team and the weekly missions but at least I have some great friends to continue sharing great food with.

And it is fitting that some of the Inspiration Team's photos appear in the Final Last Bite Mission.

THANK YOU GASTROPOST for 5 Great years.

(Image from the National Post/Post Media)

Feed it Forward

Food insecurity in Canada

Do you know what the face of hunger looks like?

·       

1 in 8 Canadian families struggle to put food on the table.

·       32% of the people requiring food assistance are children.**

·       25% of food bank users are immigrants.**

·       79,000 people each month access a food bank for the first time.*

·       Almost 40% of food bank clients have a diploma, degree or higher.**

·       On average, people who use food assistance programs do so for two years.**

*According to Food Banks Canada's HungerCount 2015 report.

**According to Daily Bread Food Bank's Who's Hungry 2015 report.

1 in 6 Canadian Children are affected by food insecurity.
*Source: Maple Leaf foods

Over the past couple of years I have learned a lot about Food Insecurity in Toronto and around the world because of my blog and in my work as an Ambassador for Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  I got involved to see if I could do something to help people learn about their food and in the process I learned about the food insecurity issue from attending local charitable events that raise funds for programs like the Stop Community Food Program, who have various food training programs and they provide food to local communities in need.  This past October  a group of people and  I toured a couple of local schools and we learned about the Feed Tomorrow program that has school programs that provide food to school children who are experiencing hunger.  The older students volunteer to assist the program.
Second Harvest is another great non-profit that has great initiatives that many local restaurants in the city support by donating food.  And don't forget the food banks, one of the largest being the Daily Bread Food Bank who work tirelessly to get food and cash donations to provide food for people on various forms of assistance.

In a city as big as Toronto that is supposed to be "booming" why do we still have these organizations struggling to serve the local community?

Is food a Human Right?

While I am not a big fan of giving street people spare change because I don't believe it helps them in the long run, but I do believe there are a lot of people that need help.

Food Insecurity is a bigger problem than you think.

Recently the cost of produce shot up almost triple the normal cost and a head of cauliflower could cost about $8.  When you make $11.50 an hour you

If you think about the fact that the minimum wage is under $12 and the cost of living in Toronto for just a bachelor apartment starts at $900 if you are lucky, there isn't much left for enough food  after you pay your necessities but isn't food a necessity too?

If you are single on Ontario Works assistance you only get $681 dollars a month.  They believe you should spend $200 a month from that for food.  Good luck with that working out.
Disability is somewhere around $900 a month I believe.
In other words if you get sick or lose your job you have a good chance of going hungry at some point unless you have some other assistance.

As a regular contributor to Gastropost (The National Post's) community I am happy to support a new partnership campaign between Gastropost and Maple Leaf Foods.
Maple Leaf Foods will provide a $10,000.00 donation.

THE CAMPAIGN:

Feed it Forward by nominating a great Canadian in your community who has gone above-and-beyond to use good food to better the lives of others. Whether they have put in place a program to nourish school children, deliver nutrition education for people who need support, or use food as a way to bring people together and teach valuable life skills.

Nominate a great Canadian in your community who has gone above-and-beyond to use good food to better the lives of others. Whether they have put in place a program to nourish school children, deliver nutrition education for people who need support, or use food as a way to bring people together and teach valuable life skills.

They could receive a $10,000 donation towards their organization and enjoy free Maple Leaf groceries for a year.  And just by nominating them you could have the opportunity to receive free Maple Leaf groceries for a year.

The Nominee must volunteer or work for a registered not-for-profit organization or community group that uses food as a key component of supporting their program goals.

I mentioned a few of these organizations above.

To NOMINATE someone submit your information here:  

http://www.mapleleaf.com/feed-it-forward-donation/

This program takes place from March 21 to April 9, 2016.

Spread the word and get people talking about this great campaign that can make a difference in a lot of people's lives through this large donation. It's easy, all you have to do is nominate someone that is already doing good things to help them and you be rewarded for the great work.

Don't forget to follow along on social media and Tweet, Instagram, Facebook or whatever else you use to spread the word.

HASHTAG #feeditforward
Don't forget to follow @MapleLeafFoods on Twitter and Instagram
Follow fellow Gastroposter's feed using the Hashtag #Gastropost
Become a Gastroposter and submit your food photos for weekly missions and follow @Gastropost
http://gastropost.nationalpost.com/

This blog post was promoted by Gastropost + Maple Leaf Foods but the opinions are completely my own based on my experience.

Mocha Coconut Ugly Sweater Brownie Cake

For the past few years I have been taking photos of different weekly challenges for Gastropost.  Gastropost is part of Postmedia who own the National Post.  Every week a few photos are chosen to appear in the Gastropost section of the Saturday edition of the National Post in Toronto and versions across Canada as well.

Recently the team at Gastropost chose 8 of us Gastropost Bloggers to complete a sponsor Challenge for the Holidays.

THE MISSION:  HOLIDAY TREATS

We were given a couple of different items from a couple of different sponsors.

I was given a Brownie Mix and Wine gums from Walmart Canada.


After scratching my head to come up with an idea of what to do with these items I decided to tie them into the Holiday Party Theme I am doing for a party with friends this weekend.

THE THEME:  UGLY SWEATER PARTY

What I did to transform and turn the products into a Holiday Treat?

I decided to make a Mocha Coconut Brownie Cake.
I knew I wanted to frost it with Coconut so it made sense to compliment the flavours of a chocolate brownie mix with Espresso flavour and coconut.

I tried to turn the wine gums into stained glass ornaments but that didn't work out as well as I would have hoped so I just used the Wine gums as decoration for the Brownie Cake.

I decided to make it round instead of the traditional square brownies to make it look more like a snowy cake and also so that I can cover it on a cake stand.  A practical reason for sure.

Directions for the Brownie:

I added about a tablespoon of Espresso powder to the mix because it enhances the chocolate flavour.
I also added about 3 tablespoons of shredded coconut to the mix.
I added the required water and 2 eggs but had to substitute the vegetable oil for Olive Oil but I wouldn't suggest this.  I didn't have any vegetable oil and didn't have time to run out to get some.  I probably would have substituted in Coconut oil if I had some and I know that would have further enhanced the flavour.

I mixed it up and then baked it.   There are directions on the box to tell you how long to cook it.   I tried to do the toothpick test to see if it comes out clean and cooked it longer but I think because I used Olive oil and added the coconut it was a bit too long and the edges burnt but these things happen sometimes.  I just cut off the brown edges when i frosted the brownie.  It takes a bit of time to bake and you have to cool it completely before you frost it.

For the Frosting:

I whipped up some white buttercream using just a couple of sticks of softened butter and a couple of cups of icing sugar and added coconut extract to it to boost the coconut flavour.

Because I only had the one box I couldn't make another one so I had to try and get it right the first time around.

I frosted the cooled brownie with the white buttercream and then added shredded coconut to make it look like snow.   I added red food coloring to the little bit of leftover buttercream and piped the outline of a sweater on the cake.

I added colored sprinkles to the inside of the sweater outline and then added a few whole and cut wine gums for the buttons on the sweater.   I also added wine gums to the border of the brownie around the edges to tie it all together.

And Voila,  and Ugly Christmas Brownie Cake.

I wanted to cut it and show a slice of it but then I would ruin the surprise for my friends  at my Holiday Party on the weekend.   So you will have to trust me that it looks good on the inside and is very chocolatey.

I will post a photo of a cut piece on my Instagram account @lindamatarasso once I cut it this sunday.

Thank you to Walmart Canada for the goodies and thank you to Gastropost for organizing a few of us crafty Bloggers.  You can follow along on Twitter and Instagram to see what the others have done by using the hashtag #GastropostHoliday.

I hope to have more photos with the Brownie cake after the weekend so look out for more soon.

Gastropost dinner with food friends

I have been a Gastroposter since it first started in 2012.  Gastropost is an online community where foodies follow weekly Missions to snap photos of their culinary adventures and a few selected photos will appear in Saturday's National Post Newspaper.  Gastropost is a division of Postmedia Lab that focuses on people's passions.  Gastropost is dedicated to food passions.

At last count I had my photos published in the National Post probably over 50 times.   I will try and get an updated count.  I am one of the few people on their Inspiration team which means we get the missions a week in advance and submit our missions by email to inspire the rest of the community to follow suit and submit their versions of the weekly mission.   Every week submissions are submitted by tagging #Gastropost on Twitter, Instagram or at the beginning we started with Tumblr.

I try and submit to every mission and have probably only missed less than a dozen at this point.

I have been to many Gastropost dinners at restaurants and have also won food related movie tickets and other prizes that Gastropost has held over the years.  They don't do contests every week but every once in a while there is some kind of food related incentive for Gastroposters that up's the challenge a bit.

I have participated in these Missions as a challenge to try and find new foods or to improve on my photography and food styling skills.  Sometimes it's helpful when I don't know what to eat and the missions will give me a direction of things I could eat and post.

After many years of participating I have never visited the place all of these missions originate from until last night.  A small group of Gastroposters were invited to the Postmedia office to have a delicious dinner catered by Dundas Park Kitchen and wines by Rosewood Estates and chat about what our participation in Gastropost has been like and to provide feedback on what we we would like to see in the future.  I can tell you that if some of those ideas come to fruition there will be a lot more group meetups that will be a lot of fun.

Hosted by our Community Manager Amanda, some people my know her as one of the bloggers from Fat Girl Food Squad.  There was also a few people from Postmedia Lab who asked us some questions and Chef Alex Tso from Dundas Park Kitchen and Krystina Roman from Rosewood Estates Winery.

Chef Tso provided a delicious summer fresh menu of platters of salads and desserts from their Sandwich and Bake Shop.  The platters included the most delicious ceviche,  guacamole, salsa and multiple salads with chickpeas, potato salads, carrots, asparagus  and fantastic grilled beef and chicken.  For dessert there was a selection of Frangiapane tarts of cherry and blueberry, pretzel chocolate chip cookies, macarons and cupcakes.

Krystina from Rosewood Estates brought 3 different wines including a Mead wine which I never heard of before but I am no wine expert to be sure but I was curious and has a small taste and I have to say that I am not a wine drinker and only cook with it but the Mead wine was mild and sweet and would be a great pairing for dessert courses when you want something lighter.

The interesting thing about the Gastropost community is that we all share the love of food.  Gastroposters get a gastrosketch when they are published in the National Post and sometimes it's hard to identify fellow gastroposters from their Gastrosketch's and their twitter handles.  Last night I met a few new Gastroposters who I will now be able to identify by their sketches and handles.
We usually have an instant connection when we meet and there has been a few times where people have come up to me at food events who have known me from my Gastropost submissions.  I guess as one of the inspiration team everyone in the community see our photos.

I have meet a lot of great people from all the Gastropost meetups and a few have become friends that I see at other food events around town.

Thank you to the Gastropost team for a delicious meal and a nice intimate get together and I hope that it brings lot's of interesting things to the Gastropost community in the future.

Chef Movie review and inspired Sandwich.

There has been a lot of hype about the Jon Favreau Movie  "CHEF" lately.  I have seen many pop up ads, tweets, tv spots etc.   It seemed to be getting massive attention.  Sometimes when a movie is overly hyped it turns out to be a disappointment when you see it but not this time.  I may be biased because I am a food blogger and a film lover but this film just made me smile the whole way through.   Something that doesn't happen a lot these days with all the blow em up films.  Jon Favreau is the jack of all things in this film and has his heart all over it.  He writes, directs and is the star of the film.

Chef is about a guy that is an executive chef in an upscale but dated kitchen and is tired of making uninspired food.  He tries to switch up the restaurant menu when he hears that a big blogger critic will be coming to the restaurant but the owner (Dustin Hoffman) of the restaurant digs his heels in and demands that they make their usual menu.   They have a huge blowout that is filmed by patrons of the restaurant and posted on youtube and the Chef leaves and the critic shows up to the same old menu which the remaining staff are forced to make.   The critic is not impressed with the food and writes a scathing review blaming the Chef.   In the meantime the video of the Chef's rant goes viral on youtube and he finds that he can't get hired anywhere else.   He is forced to start over but his ex wife (Sophia Vergara), has an idea.  She creatively plans on getting him and their son to Miami and cooks up a plan for her 1st ex husband (Robert Downey Jr), to hook up the Chef with a run down food truck.  The Chef has no other choice but to embrace the truck and go back to his culinary roots in Miami when his glowing career started.  With the help of his tech savvy and hard working son and his former sous chef partner from the restaurant they embark on a cross country trip selling food out of the food truck in cities like Miami, New Orleans and Texas and customize their menus to the towns they visit.  With the genius social media tweets and vine videos his son has been sending along the way they build up a huge following of customers and the food truck is a hit but the real winner is the relationship between the Chef and his son as they bond during their culinary adventure.  This film has a great lineup of the best comedic and A-list celebrity actors such as Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr., Sophia Vergara, Scarlett Johannsen and John Leguizamo and Oliver Platt plays the hated food critic.  The whole cast were perfect in their roles.

In the end the Chef gets exactly what he needs to be happy and makes a friend and partner out of what he thought was an enemy.

This movie has great actors, food porn, great music and a whole lot of heart.  I enjoyed it on so many levels.  I heard Jon Favreau talking about how he did a lot of research with the food truck scene and it shows with the inclusion of how social media is really a huge part of the success or failure of a food truck or a restaurant in these days of the viral video.

It opens in Canada on June 6th.  I was lucky to get to see an advanced screening thanks to Gastropost/The National Post team and saw it with a lot of fellow Gastroposters.   As I said I may be biased but I dare you not to like this film.  As an older man in front of me said after the film.  "It was a feel good film".   I must agree with him.

 I felt so good afterward that my friend and I went down to the grocery store in the Manulife building and I picked up the ingredients to make a Cuban sandwich like the one Jon Favreau made in the movie.   So here is my version of a Quick Cuban Sandwich:

Quick Cubano Sandwich

Ingredients:

2 slices of Porchetta deli meat
2 slices of Smoked Black Forest Ham
Smear of Yellow mustard
Baguette split
2 slices of garlic pickles
2 slices of swiss cheese
1 slice of melting cheese


Directions:


Split the baguette bread into about 6 inches long piece.  Spread some yellow mustard on the bottom of the bread.   Add the ham and porchetta and then the pickles and then add the Swiss cheese.  I added a couple of slices of a soft melting cheese on top of that.   Put the top on and then slather the top with softened butter.   Butter the bottom of a hot Panini press or grill press and add the sandwich and press tightly so it squeezes the sandwich down.   Cook until the cheese melts and the crust is golden brown.

A good pairing for this sandwich is a nice cold Mojito.

Gastropost Celebrates 100 Missions

GASTROPOST Celebrate's 100 Food Missions with it's Gastroposters

Last night I was invited to go to a new Italian Restaurant on Jarvis Street in Toronto called Osteri dei Ganzi - @GanziToronto to celebrate Post Media's Gastropost Section in the National Post and online who were celebration the 100th Mission.  Since the beginning of the creation of the Gastropost online community and weekly column in the National Post, I have been taking photos of everything I cook eat or drool over.  Then I upload pics that correspond to the Gastropost weekly Mission.  Last week it was Melt. Then I wait and see if it is selected to appear in the Saturday's Gatropost section of the National Post.  Apparently I have been published over 40 something times.  So I have sent them my fair share of food photos.  Last night's party was to celebrate the 100th mission.  In attendance were the Gastropost Team who have to sift through hundreds of photos every week to select their fav's for the paper and the rest are posted online.  There was a room full of Food obsessed people like me.  Some of us who have been there from the beginning have received a Gastrosketch of themselves and some were printed on cards with our choice of a mission and they were spread all over the restaurant.  I never found mine but maybe they didn't print one.  But it was fun to meet fellow Gastroposters who you have admired their photos over the past couple of years.  There are Gastroposters who I tweet and Instagram but haven't even met yet and even missed meeting them last night, but there were a few that knew exactly who each other were so that was fun.  I was even told on instagram that someone had a coworker that loved my food and wanted her to meet me.  It's very odd.  I mostly take photos while I am at home alone and then post them so I never get that much feedback but apparently a lot of people love all the photos and then there are a lot of people that just don't get it.  Oh well...there was a restaurant full of people that get it.  

You can see in one of these shots the waiter was bombarded not by hands grabbing the food right away but cameras jamming as close to it as they could to get the perfect shot.  The food was very good.  I filled up on mostly desserts because I missed the Arancini balls at the beginning...too bad..   

The Restaurant's staff ver very friendly and patient with all the crazy foodies in the room.

Also in attendance was Chef Corbin Tomacezski who was there to get people interested in the Culinary Challenge for Cook for the Cure for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.   I signed up last year and the woman who organizes the Challenge remembered me.   I need to make lot's of new friends with money before I can sign up again this year.

Everyone had a great time and there were even raffle prizes.  No I didn't win one, but there were only a few.  Thanks to our hosts Duncan, Rebecca, Chris and Adam for the great party.   

I even got a ride home from fellow Gastroposter Jenny Roger.  (pictured below light hair with Maria (dark hair) another Gastroposter)

Let's hope I will still be posting at the 200 mission mark and we celebrate at another great party.

Keep following www.gastropost.com to see everyone's photos.

T.U.M. serves up their 2nd Year Anniversary

I finally made it out to the Toronto Underground Market (T.U.M.) as it's known as held at the Evergreen Brickworks every month or so for the past year.  They celebrated their Second year anniversary with a double event day.  They had an early day session for families and after 5 version for 19+.

In a very last minute decision while talking to a friend we decided to go and check out the evening version.  We got there pretty late, I think it was probably around 8:30pm when we arrived.

I did try and go to one other T.U.M. and purchased tickets online in advance and when I got there I couldn't find any parking after driving around the lot for 15-20  minutes I gave up and left.   This time I took a chance to get tickets at the door after I saw a facebook post that they still had tickets available. Code for we haven't filled the place so please come.

For the first time T.U.M. teams up with Gastropost/Financial Post to promote attendees taking pics for this week's Mexican Challenge for Gastropost.

It is a fun event and I met some super friendly vendors like these guys from HOLY CRAB, great name and really nice guys.  My friend tried their lobster nacho or something like that.  She thought it was great.







We both tried the Kanga (Australian) Meat Pies.
We had the Zucchini and Caramelized Onion Pies.  They were very filling,  I probably should have just had a half of one.

There were a couple of really delicious things that I tried.   One was the Arepa from Mango Pinton.  It had black beans, sweet plantains that balanced the steak.  It was a full burst of flavour in a little hand pocket Arepa.

On the sweet side I tried some Oma's Dutch Delights. Small pillows of pancake batter served with chocolate or maple syrup, icing sugar and strawberries, all optional.  I had them with strawberries and icing sugar.  It was a pancake batter and cooked in what looked like a snail pan so they were little round golden brown pancakes.  Very tasty since there was more surface that was browned from the smaller sized pancakes.

On the whole it is a fun event and a great place to go with a group of friends and to meet some new people.

My caveat is that it does get very costly since you have to either drive there and pay for parking,  I paid $3 for parking for an hour.  Then you have to pay $20 to get in.  You pay individually for each food and beverage vendor with the average price from $4-$9 per item.  Then add your drinks which were limited to some craft brewers, I saw one wine vendor and one alcohol vendor.  So if you plan on driving bring a bottle of water or a designated driver.  It's easy to drop about $40-$50 at a T.U.M. night.  They had a few tables set up in a area to the side but you pretty much stand on concrete when you are chowing down on your food. Because I went late there weren't line ups for food but I know that generally if you go early you will experience lineups to get in and for each popular vendor.

If you like to try new things and like to sample many different foods at one location then this is the place for you.   The evening T.U.M.  had a D.J. who played good but loud music giving it a very club feel and making it a bit difficult to chat with the vendors.   This is a great event for the young and hip club people that want to try the latest food trends and hang out with friends.

I wouldn't say it's a great value for the money as you generally are eating things like pulled pork sandwiches, appetizer foods and smaller portions.   I would still suggest checking it out because a lot of these vendors start at this event and build their clientele and then open up bricks and morter restaurants. Think of it like an Indie Band scene.  It kind of works the same way.  They learn their craft and see what people like at these events and they fine tune and grow their fan bases and then when they are ready they join the big leagues with their own restaurants.

Check them out and remember the ones you liked and you may have a new destination restaurant to go to sooner or later.

Top Chefs stretch their noodles for a good cause

Rockstar Vancouver Chef Vikram Vij and me

http://www.culinaryshowdown.ca/

I had the pleasure of being invited to an Invite Only event at Cirillo's Culinary Academy because of my Gastropost involvement.  It was a last minute invite and I didn't get confirmation until this morning but I jumped at a chance to go to this event because I knew it would be full of Chef Rockstars who are great chefs and really fun people.  I think there were only a few of the many Gastroposters in the room and it was mostly filled with people that are involved in some way with Breast Cancer Foundation fundraising.  The small but mighty group of Gastroposters were armed with camera and ready for some fun.

As we arrived we were presented with some beverages and beautifully presented and very tasty food.  You can see by the photos here that I probably spent more time photographing the food than I did eating it.  I did try the shrimp which was delicious and planned to go back for more but that never happened because I was busy taking photos and "mixing and mingling: as they called it.  After a bit of the mix and mingle there was a presentation about the Chef's Challenge happening in December and how the funds raised go toward Cancer research.  There were personal stories from a Cancer survivor and from the Chef's as well.

They encouraged everyone to sign up to raise money to join the Chef's Challenge.   I decided to sign up because I would love to go and watch,  less pressure than actually doing the cooking.  These chef's are mighty competitive.  Will see how much money I can raise.  I will post the links to the donation page in a future post.   I kind of felt like it was my way of contributing to a disease that touches everyone.  In my life it took my Dad away at 65 and most of my aunts and uncles,  and has touched a few of my friends as well.

After the speeches it was time for a little Chef Challenge.  Chef Lynn Crawford took on the reigns as Host/commentator and it was East coast vs West Coast in a Longest Noodle Challenge.   Which team could crank out the longest pasta noodle on a kitchen aid mixer machine.   It was Mark McEwen and Chef Corbin on one team and the West coast represented by Dean McDermott and Vikram Vij,  and a few recruits to help them stretch out those long noodles.  There were a lot of noodle jokes in the explanation of the rules of this challenge.  You had to be there....  Anyway at a certain point I lent a hand or 2 to the West Coast team.... they were the fun team, although Dean was taking it very seriously and trying to kick the East Coasts chef's butts.   Well the East coast won the challenge but I don't know about that since their noodle split in half and Chef Corbin was holding it together in the middle.   Oh well... no prizes but just a whole lot of fun with pasta noodles.

Dean photo bombs Vikram

Seriously

                                             Chef Lynn wrangles the "Ding Dongs"

                                                                      Noodle Challenge

                                        Me and Dean McDermott with the Noodle aftermath.

                 What do you do with leftover noodles.... put them on your head of course.