Once again on this week‘s Recipe to Riches, the show’s formula stayed pretty much the same. But for some reason, the whole package seemed to fit better than ever before (perhaps familiarity breeds acceptance, not contempt). The best part of each week’s episode is without a doubt the batch-up challenge, where ordinary home chefs are confronted with making inhuman quantities of their recipes—even with the help of their professional mentors, it’s a test of their leadership and ingenuity, and it makes for some good TV. This week, the appetizer challenge, was no exception. Our episode recap and tasting panel, after the jump.
Mini-Recap
This week featured the show’s first GTA contestant, Diana Petrini of Woodbridge, who brought a family recipe for some delicious-looking olives that were stuffed with minced beef and veal before being breaded and fried. She got dealt the toughest hand in the batch-up challenge, which required a whopping 500 portions of each appetizer, with each olive counting as only half a portion. After what looked like hours of inefficient olive pitting, the producers took mercy on her and handed over some pitted olives (the moral, apparently: be careful what you ask for in your ingredient list). Petrini was up against New Brunswick’s John Grass, who made a bacon and cheese–wrapped chicken appetizer he called chicken grenades, and Sara Bradeen of Montreal, who valiantly decided to introduce tourtière to the rest of Canada. Sadly, in a running theme for the show, Bradeen had difficulties multiplying her quantities up 500 times, and so her minced meat went bland, taking her out of the running (with both tourtière and pouding chômeur eliminated, things aren’t looking good for a new poutine-like breakthrough from La Belle Province). For the marketing challenge, Grass—a former football player with a heart of gold who now works at a family-run nursing home—employed a troupe of firefighters to shill his man food outside a somewhat deserted looking Simcoe Place. For her olive lapedonesi, Petrini decided to go with a “high-end cocktail party” in Dundas Square, of all places, where, inevitably, she encountered a construction crew. In the end, it came down to a risk (funny-sounding battered olives) versus a sure bet (bacon, cheese and chicken). And it probably didn’t help Petrini that Galen Weston Jr. doesn’t like olives. In the end, Grass took the win.
Tasting Panel
The bright orange box with a cartoon Grass holding a red chili like a football didn’t exactly inspire confidence in this week’s product. Nor did the 10 little skewers, all shrink-wrapped and frozen together (it took some force to pry them apart). But the first thing out of the mouths of our tasting-panel members after the first bite: “Wow. These are good.” The chicken inside actually had the flavour and texture of chicken, and the bacon wrapping kept everything moist. Some people found the spiciness a little much after a few seconds, and others didn’t love the gooey “shredded pizza mozzarella and Monterey Jack” cheese mix (much of which leached off during cooking). One panel member likened the grenades, favourably, to Doritos. When we returned to our desks, the soporific nutritional effects began to kick in: each little two-skewer serving contains 12 per cent of your recommended daily sodium intake and 21 per cent of your saturated fats. In other words, this is indeed total man food. Said one taster: “When I saw that football player guy on the box, I thought ‘This makes sense.’” Check out the grenades in our box-to-plate gallery »
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- The bright orange box features Grass is full football regalia, holding a chilli pepper like a football
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- The ten skewered chicken grenades come frozen and shrink-wrapped
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- Under the shrink-wrap, the grenades are frozen together in one big bomb. It takes some force to pry them apart, even after they’ve defrosted a little while
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- The grenades, laid out on a tray and ready to bake
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- After about 17 minutes in the oven, some of the cheese had leached out and burned, but the bacon was perfectly browned
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- 10 chicken grenades, plated
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- And here’s the real, homemade thing
Next week on Recipe to Riches: savoury pies, with Burnaby’s Melaney Gleeson-Lyall, Brampton’s Wayne Reid and the show’s only Toronto contestant, Tikka Smiley.
(Images: John Grass and homemade chicken grenade, Food Network Canada; tasting photos, Andrew D’Cruz)
I tried these today and they were delicious! I wasn’t expecting a frozen food to be so good. HIGHLY recommended!
November 3, 2011 at 10:00 pm | by Laurai wanted the olives!!!!
i remember when local kitchen opened and one of their first things were rabbit stuffed olives…mmmmm
November 4, 2011 at 6:23 am | by parkdaleeaterHave not tried these yet but I sure hope they are a lot better than the last two offerings.
November 4, 2011 at 11:33 am | by Evelyn MonminieThe Luscious Lemon Pudding cakes left us with a very unpleasant after taste. The Rock n’ Peach Cheesecake did not have enough cheesecake and could not find the sponge cake.
Both were very disappointing.
Don’t know if I want to spend any more money on this contest.
Liked both one and two offerings in the contest. Didn’t feel the first one was worth spending $6.99. Cheesecake was great but didn’t taste the sponge cake???? Didn’t see the third episode on TV this week. What happened? Enjoy the show very much. Will keep watching and trying out the recipes.
November 4, 2011 at 11:57 am | by Nancy JohnstonI tried these just yesterday. I was not impressed. The pepper sauce was on the bottom of the tray & had to scoop it up to add to the skewers. Wish I had not as then the sauce overpowered everything else. I could see this with no name brands but I am used to better quailty & taste with Presidents Choice produces. I have made similar wrapped chicken before & my husband says he prefers mine over these. Sorry but at $8.99 for 10 skewers it is not worth it.
November 5, 2011 at 1:41 pm | by Myrla Granttried the grenades this week…thought they were good, but…i think you should change your packaging…the sauce should be in its own container to put-on top of the grenades after they are cooked…it doesn’t make any sense at all to have the sauce poured on the grenades in the packaging, it all just ends up on the bottom the container! cheers
November 5, 2011 at 3:22 pm | by marian gordonWaaaaayyyyyyyy too salty, just good, not more than that!
November 6, 2011 at 2:18 pm | by Louis$8.99 too much
Loved the lemon dessert and i have also made it.Didn’t like the second one.Just bought the grenades but haven’t tried them yet,but is a bit pricey
November 6, 2011 at 3:49 pm | by Darlene BleilerI agree 8.99 for these grenades are way too much! Especially when they are just “so so”. So you could say the grenades bombed.
November 6, 2011 at 6:16 pm | by shaunI’ve tried all of the products, too .. none of which I’ll buy.
They taste mass produced, and I’m personally not a fan of the tv series; BORRRING.
November 6, 2011 at 11:48 pm | by MrsPotatoWhere do you get the Granades dyiny to try them
November 8, 2011 at 11:55 am | by ColetteLoved the show but now reading other comments I don’t know if I want to try the Grenades or attempt to make them myself Can’t be that difficult since I used to be a cook in a kitchen
November 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm | by ColetteI will NEVER recommend these to anyone, no matter how good they taste for the sheer difficulty of getting them apart to cook them, even after leaving them to sit for the recommended time!! Especially for the $9 cost for 10 little tiny skewers… I haven’t even tasted them yet, and I am extremely disappointed… I will never buy them again unless they drop the price severely or don’t freeze them so they are stuck together…
November 17, 2011 at 1:32 am | by AnonymousI tried the grenades along with my son and daughter as I thought he out of all of them would enjoy them…I will not recommend these at all. After the first little bite my mouth was SO HOT (like a grenade) I could taste nothing else and wanted something to put out the FLAME. My 7 year old reacted the same way…My son 14 is finishing off the box. Guess his taste buds are better than mine. I wish the tortierre pies had actually won as I think these are not going to appeal to very many once they try them
November 18, 2011 at 12:44 am | by Lorna-Mae van KleyI had them and they are very good .l would recommend them, you have to like hot foods to eat them .read it and you no on the box it say hot lo.so fi you like hot food git them they will love it,fi you do not like hot them don.t buy them , out of all them l like this one . good job and taste good.and you can eat them all year around thats whout l like to, tina levely
November 19, 2011 at 12:07 am | by tina levely