Halo-Halo on Top Chef by Dale Talde - Recipe Included

I’m a big fan of reality TV and this year, the show that has kept me entertained the most has been BravoTV’s Top Chef. The show is currently on its fourth season and the initial crop of 16 cheftestants have been reduced to nine. The current season was filmed in Chicago and the who’s who of the culinary world has appeared on the show to judge - Anthony Bourdain, Ming Tsai to name a few. Top Chef is not available on local TV so depend on torrents to keep up with the series. Since I love to cook myself, it’s great to see the contestants whip out greatly plated dishes despite an unrealistic time frame. I know it sucks that we can’t really taste the food as we’re watching the show and we have to rely on the judges’ comments, but seeing good food and the drama behind the preparation still strikes me as something interesting - even more interesting than seeing who gets the ax next.

This season has been special because the cheftestants have been a mixed bag. There are obvious frontrunners though. Richard Blais has won the most challenges and is a self-professed molecular gastronomist who has whole bag of tricks up his sleeve. He has appeared previously on the US edition of Iron Chef. Stephanie Izard, a Chicago native, have also been consistently producing good dishes for both the quickfire challenge (that’s the pre-elimination challenge where the winner gets immunity) and the elimination challenge. The most interesting character of them all is probably Dale Talde. Dale Talde is Filipino and was born and raised in Chicago. He can be a bit confrontational and rude at times, but he has always performed well in the kitchen. Before being on the show, he was a sous chef at Buddakan, an Asian restaurant in the New York City.

If you’re getting the arrogant vibe from this photo, then it’s a very accurate description of what he has been edited as in the show.

For the seventh episode (S04E07), the cheftestants were asked to make a dessert in 90 minutes. Dale was very perplexed but he knew what he wanted he to do. He claimed that he only knows one dessert and that dessert was halo-halo! He further explained that he used to have it all the time as a kid. During judging he said that he was bringing something that we do in our culture. It felt great that the humble halo-halo was represented on Top Chef! Hehe

Don’t get the wrong idea that Dale sent a glass with gulaman and sago. (interestingly, somebody else has done tapioca balls and passed them off as faux caviar lol). As you could read on the caption, Dale made “Halo-halo” with shaved ice, avocado, mango,kiwi and nuts. That’s hardly the halo-halo we know, but come on! This is Top Chef! I guess this is the fine dining interpretation of the pedestrian dish we have grown to love and enjoy.

Dale looks like he has a good chance of winning it all. I hope he continues to do well. I hope the Philippine media picks this story up because unlike Ramiele Malubay, this guy has talent. Being Filipino is just one of the cool things about him, unlike in Ramiele’s case wherein it was the only thing that was going for here (from our perspective).

Here’s the recipe from the Top Chef website.

DIRECTIONS (copied from the Top Chef website)

Lemongrass Young Coconut Water Brother:
Pound lemongrass and ginger with sugar and coconut juice and coconut meat.
Place young coconut meat and water in pot and add lemongrass and ginger. Bring to a simmer and let steep for 10 minutes.

Braised Mango with Coconut and Chilies:
In a pan combine all ingredients, let simmer until mango is soft, then cut into strips.

Avocado Shake:
Add avocado to the blender with condensed milk. Turn blender on low then gradually turn to high slowly adding ice. Blend until smooth.

Bruleed Mango:
Dice mango, dust with sugar and brulee with a torch.

Kiwi Caviar:
Cut kiwi into quarters and remove white center, then cut out center seeds.

Five-Spice Cashews:
In a pot, add sugar (reserve two tablespoons), water and cashews. Boil until liquid becomes syrup. Let cool and strain out liquid, then deep fry cashews. When cashews are golden brown, remove and toss in remaining sugar and five spice blend.

Assembly:
Mix ice and lemongrass liquid well and add to glass, then add 3 ounces avocado puree, braised mango, bruleed mango, chopped candied cashews, young coconut meat, Rice Krispies, cilantro leaves and chili rings.
Here’s another blog entry about Dale.

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