Top Chef: Dale Talde

Posted by jepoyzter under Food

I love watching Bravo TV’s Top Chef. One among the chef contestant is our very own Dale Talde.

Bios via Bravo TV

AGE: 29
HOMETOWN: Chicago, Il
PROFESSION: Sous Chef at Buddakan
CULINARY EDUCATION: Culinary Institute Of America
FAVORITE SIMPLE SPRING RECIPE: Grilled matsutake mushrooms, shaved myoga, spicy truffled ponzu

WINS:
Quick Fire: 1/7
Elimination: 2/7

Dale, a sous chef at Buddakan, one of New York’s hottest restaurants, was born and raised in Chicago, where he helped open the renowned restaurant Jean Georges Vong. In Chicago, Dale worked with distinguished chefs like Carrie Nahabedian and Shawn Mcclain. With his Filipino background, Dale focuses on Asian flavors. “I love the balance that Asian cuisine offers the salty, sweet, bitter and sour and the textures it provides for different experiences in every bite.” One of Dale’s kitchen favorites is a dry aged kobe rib eye. Dale says cooking meats is one of his favorite things to do in the kitchen and the technique that goes into properly searing and basting a rack of lamb or steak shows a lot of love. A motto that drives Dale is “expect perfection , because if you fall short your left with greatness.”

This week’s episode on Top Chef was all about improvising. On the quickfire challege, chef are ask to create a dessert. Most of them don’t do pastries and dessert, so they must improvise a recipe to impress the judge. The quickfire judge Johnny Iuzzini, author and award winning pastry chef. Dale who I didn’t know a filipino (though he look like one) created a dessert which most Filipino people loved, the Halo-Halo. Though it is not the conventional Halo-halo you order at Chowking or at Aling Auring’s Karinderia. The judge being the halo-halo as one of his favorite dessert in the challenge say that the it has a lot of texture and lots of spice. Galing talaga…. But I would prefer if the judge would really taste the real halo-halo itself. I heard that the best Halo-halo in Manila is at Manila Peninsula.

I also remember Mike post on his blog something about halo-halo. So who will treat me for a moth-watering dessert? hehehehe…

So if you’re at the office and reading my blog and wants to have a halo-halo. Call Chowking now!