And now the verdict from our judge, the honorable Michael Ruhlman.
Dear Adam,
A lot of votes for Vanessa’s soup. My first thought was, god, that looks like something on a frat house floor at 4 in the morning.
Generally, I’m actually really impressed by the efforts, most of them. I liked the blue martini (and the blue Bombay bottle on the newlyfeds site) but a martini ain’t food—unless of course there’s an olive in it, in which case it’s an excellent lunch food.
Other food wasn’t blue—the plate of four dishes—so that’s out. Loved the blue fin tuna idea. And I admired those who used naturally occurring blue food (cheese, corn). But the point was to see blue. What was the orange cornbread doing in there? A blue spoon? Nope.
The pizza spooked me. After school experiment with the kids. Glad it tasted good!
The crust on the talapia was purple, and purple is appetizing, as that deeeelicious looking pie shows. But it’s not blue. All in all a really gross looking plate, even though the fish looks like it was cooked nicely.
The coolest photo by far was the oatmeal–and loved the candied nuts on top. Didn’t want to eat it though.
And poor Glenna’s plate. I loved her blog entry on blue food, excellent, but the plate, oy. Enough to make you heave just looking at it. That stuff looks like how the puddle on the frat house floor started out the night.
Which brings us back to Vanessa’s Lake: the winner.
Yes, I know what I said. But as I read all the blogs and looked at the pictures and compared, I really began to admire the soup.
First the soup sounds good and it has an appealing texture and color. I love artichokes and leeks. To add garlic as garnish makes good culinary sense. That she figured out a way to make it blue from reading mcgee’s column in the times I thought was impressive.
Congratulations Vanessa. And the rest of you, don’t be blue! I truly enjoyed your efforts and the chance to check out your blogs.
Thanks Adam. This was fun. Wish I was going to the Blue Man Group!
Yours,
Michael
“Other food wasn’t blue—the plate of four dishes—so that’s out.” I do believe the rules in Adams original post stated “Does the food need to be blue? Not necessarily, as long as it expresses the theme.” Perhaps your “judge” needs to read the rules again.
Congratulations to Vanessa – the garlic technique was really cool! And yes, making my pizza was exactly like doing a school project with second graders.
Congratulations, Vanessa. I’m going to try that blue garlic on a bacon and gorgonzola pizza (without the blue crust).
This was a lot of fun–thanks, Adam!
Now I’m going to drown my sorrows in a blue martini.
Jami
boo on you,
the vagaries of contests, and the luxury of judging by fiat…
Thank you Michael, thank you Adam! Ever since Tobias joined the Blue Man Group on Arrested Development I’ve been dying to put on jean cutoffs and go see what the excitement is all about. Many thanks for the opportunity.
Oh, I made a blue cake and then my digital camera went wonky and I couldn’t load it
and now it’s over
maybe I will send it in anyhow when technology permits
Adam –
You continue to be the most entertaining and creative of the food blogs I read. The blue contest was subliminally informative and a bit of a riot to look through. Thanks as always. (And Michael did an excellent job of judging!)
Wow. Rude!
I’ve been dreaming about the blue oatmeal and I don’t even like oatmeal.