April | 2013 | blogging doesn't get tougher than this

question time

Having gone on about how awesome Jose Pizarro is, I thought I may as well put my money where my mouth is and got my people to contact his people. After lengthy negotiations and hardball tactics, Chef Pizarro cleared his busy schedule and answered a few questions for me!

Yeah, OK, not much negotiating took place, in fact Hannah at Nourish PR was absolutely delightful. Take it away:

Thank you, Jose for taking the time to answer my questions. I am a huge fan of Spanish food and drink (you and your food especially!) and have lots to ask. SO ..!

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“there’s no drama like wrestling”

13 Apr

OK, OK, I had to shoe horn a wrestling angle in there somehow (all will become clear later)… that or a Marx Brothers quote.

There are always trends running through a Masterchef series and this year it seems to be duck, duck, duck (but no duck soup). The current run continues apace with another trend – women! Lots of them! Quarter finals, semi finals. Brilliant. About bloody time. There also seem to be a lot more curries than there have been in previous years or at least of the fiiiine diiiining caliber.

There have been some memorable moments already (the uber posh brothers, the ‘young grandmother’ who was a personal favourite, the dish that made Torode’s heart go thump) but my ultimate moment has to be the trip to Brasserie Joel for a lunch shift with Walter Ishizuka. Anyone familiar with American culture or comedy will hopefully be aware of the genius (and I don’t use that word lightly) that is Mr Andy Kaufman. He was a man of many characters and one of the funniest was Foreign Man with his accent and squeaky voice. FM became known as Latka Gravas in the hit show Taxi. I have no doubt in my mind that Chef Ishizuka is a serious, focused and talented man it just so happens that he speaks exactly like Foreign Man. Walter, I’m so sorry. I could not stifle my giggles and I am so glad that I was not part of that brigade – I would have been thrown out in no time and rightly so. Read the rest of this entry »