Dec. 02--If you saw last night's episode of "Chopped," you know that the winner of the four-chef showdown was Joe Cecchini. If you didn't, well, the winner was Joe Cecchini.
"It was very fun," the chef said. "You have to be thinking on your feet; it was a really cool experience."
Who is Joe Cecchini? The native Chicagoan studied and cooked in Italy, and previously has been sous-chef under Tony Priolo at Piccolo Sogno Due and chef de cuisine at The Boarding House. He opened Cibo Matto with Todd Stein in The Wit hotel, then followed Stein to the J.W. Marriott in the Loop to create The Florentine. Currently, he's the chef de cuisine at Ballaro, the contemporary Italian restaurant that opened last month in Highwood (214 Green Bay Road, Highwood).
If you've not viewed the Food Network show "Chopped," the show pits four chefs in a three-course "mystery box" (must-use ingredients revealed just before cooking begins) competition. One chef is eliminated after the appetizer and the entree courses, leaving two competitors to duel in the final course.
"The whole competition is done in one day," Cecchini said. "Seventeen hours of filming."
The twist in this particular "Chopped" episode is that the mystery boxes followed a "mac and cheese" theme.
"We opened the first box," he said, "and there was skinless but on-the-bone monkfish, a hunk of Canadian bacon, a bunch of Swiss chard and a (generic) box of mac and cheese with the powdered-cheese packet."
Cecchini's bacon-wrapped monkfish with fumet (made from the bones) and sauteed chard with noodles and cheese sauce was good enough to get him into the second round, and his Mexican take on mac-and-cheese (with chicken chicharrones, guajillo and ancho chilies, shredded chicken and chili creme fraiche) boosted him into the finals.
The last box contained mostaccioli, white chocolate, figs and mac-and-cheese ice cream (with actual chunks of noodle), which, with some help from the pantry that contestants were permitted to raid, became a white-chocolate-ricotta filling, piped into mostaccioli noodles ("I couldn't find pastry bags, so I used a sous-vide bag," Cecchini said) and served with the ice cream (the noodles carefully strained out) and red-wine-poached figs.
This dessert will not appear on the Ballaro menu.
Congratulations, chef, and may your Highwood pantry ever remain mac-and-cheese free.
Phil Vettel is a Tribune critic.
