Shannon Bard cooks Mexican fare at Zapoteca every day, so it’s a bit ironic that it was a poblano pepper and chipotle pepper spice that brought her down on “Beat Bobby Flay” on the Food Network Thursday night.
Celebrity chef Flay gave the Portland chef and her competitor, Kamal Rose, executive chef at the Tribeca Grill in New York City, a poblano pepper as their mystery ingredient. They had 20 minutes to prepare a dish good enough to impress the judges; the winner would go on to battle Flay in the final round.
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Bard couldn’t believe her luck when she saw the poblano pepper, and decided to make a relleno with shrimp. But then she grabbed the chipotle pepper to spice the shrimp, and used way too much. It turns out the chipotle was much fresher on the set than she is used to in her restaurant, where it’s purchased in bulk. While Bard was “really, really happy” with her dish, in hindsight she says she should have “practiced what I preach” and tasted the chipotle before adding it.
“That’s one of the problems with being given an ingredient that you work with so much,” she said. “I was pretty much overly confident.”
Even though Bard did not advance to the final round, “I had a good time,” she said. “It was a really, really fun experience.”
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