Chef Profile: Holly Smith
Contest Winner
Before we get started, I’d like to announce the winner of Frank Stitt’s Bottega Favorita cookbook: Deborah R., who wrote, “I love the way a good Southern chef can make a heavenly Italian favorite just that much better. I signed up for your newsletter — not that I needed the bribe, but I also appreciate the chance to win Chef Stitt’s book.”
What are you waiting for? Enter this week’s giveaway — one of several — below, but of course, not before reading the latest installment of our profiles of the contestants on the current season of The Next Iron Chef :
Oops! For the second week in a row, the chef we had lined up to feature that week was the same chef who got voted off the island. Sorry, Holly! While I don’t think that being featured in BehindTheKnife.com is a jinx, you know the third time’s a charm. Hopefully, the ax won’t fall on the chef on deck, Chef…sorry! I think I’ll keep that information to myself for the time being.
For me, the greatest moment of the Week Two episode was the absolute look of glee on Chef Mehta’s face when it was disclosed that Chef Trevino — assigned to prepare a deconstructed version of dolmas, the classic Greek dish of stuffed grape leaves — discovered that Mehta had run off with the kitchen’s entire stash of grape leaves. A classic TV moment.
Okay, here we go:
The Chef: Holly Smith of Cafe Juanita in Kirkland, Washington, where the focus is on Northern Italian cuisine. Holly won the 2008 James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef in the Northwest.
The Toolbox: Forget about the judges’ criticism for a moment. After the stunt that Chef Mehta pulled with the grape leaves, methinks that perhaps Chef Smith just wasn’t mean and conniving enough to progress further in the competition. Example A: She SHARES her tools! “Right now, all of my knives are strewn all over the Café Juanita kitchen, and everyone has their preferences to which knives they like,” she admits. “However, when I travel, I use a bright orange canvas rollout knife kit — you’ll see it on The Next Iron Chef.” Um, maybe if you catch a rerun.
The Sentimental Tool: “I have a handmade knife made by Bob Kramer (KramerKnives.com), which was given to me by my friends at Dahlia Lounge," she says. Note: Bob Kramer is a master knifesmith whose products are loved by chefs worldwide, while Dahlia Lounge is run by the famous Seattle chef Tom Douglas.
The Long-Lost Tool: “I used to carry a meat cleaver in there, but now I just leave it at Café Juanita,” she says, admitting that it’s just too heavy to carry around. Perhaps if she waved it around on the set of The Next Iron Chef, she’d be around to cook another day.
Paging Alton Brown/A Strange Thing In Her Toolbox: “I think I just found a side towel from when we shot The Next Iron Chef that made its way into my knife roll by accident.” A likely story…what could it fetch on eBay?
The Professional Analysis: “A psychologist looking at my toolbox would probably say that I’m able to make great things happen with little fuss,” she says. “While there aren’t very many fancy tools in it, I use the basics to create incredible things.”
Thou Shalt Not Covet Another Chef’s Tools: Says Chef Smith: “I was definitely intrigued by Chef Mehta’s tool kit. With those pastry chefs, you never know what you are going to find in there.”
BehindTheKnife.com Bonus
One lucky reader will win a copy of the new book The Berghoff Cafe , by Carlyn Berghoff with Nancy Ross Ryan.
It’s easy to enter. Just leave a comment below with your opinion on whether or not Chef Smith was unfairly booted, and then sign up for our new weekly newsletter The Blowtorch. The Blowtorch will contain giveaways that won’t be mentioned on the BehindTheKnife.com website.
Read our standard rules. Contest ends October 20th at 11:59 p.m.
who am i do judge the wisdom of the judges?