One of the things we’re starting to do with Chef is give him a Mystery Box A la Chopped and have him use those three or four ingredients in the meal that night. Right now, I’m giving him plenty of time to look up flavor profiles, learn how foods he’s never used before are used, even look up recipes. Eventually the hope is he won’t need that kind of time and planning to figure out how to use the items in the box, but he’s only in his second quarter, so it’s too early to throw him in the deep end without some time to look for ideas and figure things out. We hope to do be doing this every Friday.

Tonight’s Mystery Box started with Salmon. I then gave him the option of Oranges or Figs. His final item from me was Leeks, but he suggested Kale, so I told him he could use Kale, but if he did he had to use the Figs. Unfortunately, the farmer’s market didn’t have any figs. Just as well; they didn’t have the Almond Flour for the fig recipe he found. So his final Box ended up being Salmon, Oranges, and Kale.

And he did wonderfully. The first part of his meal came from a recipe. This salad had Kale, Oranges, Strawberries, Golden Raisins (which surprised me, considering his dislike of raisins in general), and Pine Nuts with a dressing made of Honey, EVOO, and Garlic. He also added some scraps from the carrots he cut for the main course portion of the meal. It was absolutely wonderful. The texture of the kale played off the texture of the fruits, the raisins added an extra burst of sweetness, and the dressing gave it that extra little boost that brought it all together nicely.

For the main course, he grilled the salmon and made his own sauce using Dark Soy Sauce, Worcestershire, Fresh Orange Juice, and Teriyaki Sauce and reducing it down. He brushed this over the grilling salmon. Probably the only thing “out of place” was the squash and carrots with the salmon, but they were good, just not integrated with the salmon or connected with it via the orange juice the way the separate salad was. It was still a beautiful plate and a delicious meal.

Eventually, hopefully, he’ll integrate all the food in the box in one dish. But everything is baby steps, and for his first box, this was a wonderful success. Already looking forward to next week and thinking about what should be in the box.