Okay, the final bell has run (yes, like two weeks I go, sorry, I’m lame) and a winner was chosen.  At this point, I feel pretty safe in assuming you already know it was Michael Voltaggio who won.

Anyway, this marks the final

Fantasy Top Chef Report

For season 6.  So we need to finish up talking about it and then we’ll talk about

Matsutake Mushrooms

So here was the final standings:

Me: 27
Michele: 23
Josh: 18
Karen: 16
Debbie: 13
Colleen: 13
Elise: 8

Yay Michael V and Robin!  Who knew they’d be such an unstoppable culinary combination.  All that kitchen tension, yet they still came together for a big Fantasy Top Chef victory for me!  For me!!

—

Okay, enough of that.  I shouldn’t gloat about my winning on my own blog too much.

Well maybe  a little more…

I am the champion, my friends…

Now I’m done.

Anyway, the ingredient/challenge/thing that really interested me in the finale was Tom’s comment about how hard Matsutake mushrooms are to cook properly.  That was something I did not know.  Shitake mushrooms are a dream to fix.  They take heat well and they taste really good. 

Matsutake…apparently not.  At least according to Tom.

The weird thing I found was that none of these sites:

Wild About Mushrooms
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Mycological Natural Products on Matsutake Mushrooms

Discuss in any detail the difficulties of cooking them.  Sure, they say they can be tough (as in chewy tough), but Tom seemed to talk about them like they were an incredibly difficult culinary challenge.  Hrmm…

The best advice that I gleaned from those sites seems to be to marinate the mushrooms in a blend of soy and spices.  Then to cook them 2-3 minute a side or until they brown.

Or chop them into small pieces and toss them into a rice cooker.

Enjoy!