SEATTLE Chez Robert and Tiffany

We spent Thanksgivings at Robert and Tiffany's this year. Robert and Tiffany put in a lot of work to host family and friends: both sides parents, Ricci, Amy, Nancy, and Philippe.

Over multiple days, Robert made several of his signature dishes. For our first dinner in Seattle, we tasted his honey crispy chicken, modeled after their favorite Thai dish (at restaurant Bai Tong). It came out delicious.  

Homemade honey crispy chicken

For Thanksgivings lunch, Robert spent a lot of time planning and running the 2023 Top Chef Competition, where we were blind folded and had to guess a homemade dish (Poke), its ingredients, and multiple category of blind tasting: fruits, chocolate, alcoholic cider and beer, dark soda, coffee.

For Thanksgivings dinner, we all helped make Nai Nai's traditional dumplings, pan fried and boiled styled. Robert made BBQ ribs and mashed potatoes. Nancy made a yummy cucumber side dish and Korean cold noodles (Bibim Naengmyun). Thanh made a bok choy and shiitake mushroom side dish. Bruce and Jenny provided dessert. 

Thanksgivings Feast

The top 3 winners of the Top Chef Blind Tasting competition were: Amy, Ricci, and Tiffany. As the Top Chef, Amy was the recipient of the Wooden Spoon Award.

2023 Top Chef Competition winner: Amy

The results of the Blind Tasting competition led into the Master Chef Pizza Cook Off: the 3 top players were told to have a handicap. Amy was not allowed to use tomato sauce, and only up to two toppings. Ricci and Tiffany were allowed to use a maximum of two toppings, one of which must be a "wacky" topping.

For the Pizza Cook off, Robert featured his new Ooni gas pizza oven. Thanh made Neopolitan-style pizza dough and homemade tomato sauce for everyone. Thanh showed everyone how to stretch the pizza dough.  Everyone came up with their own pizza toppings and put them together. Thanh launched everyone's pizza into the oven, while Phil helped rotate and cook the pizza. 

The first couple pizzas suffered, as the launcher was learning where the hot spots were in the oven (the owner of the oven was not helpful.)

2023 Master Chef Pizza Cook Off

Amy's "wacky" ingredients were pancetta and corn, her base was garlic butter.

Ricci's "wacky" ingredients were bulgogi and kimchi, on tomato sauce base.

Tiffany's "wacky" ingredients were panko and herbs from her own garden, her base was the lobster pasta sauce.

It was a super fun group activity. At the end, we all voted for the best tasting pizza category, the best looking pizza category, and the most original pizza category.

Blake and Zoe voted that every single pizza was excellent.

Pizza Night

Chef Robert ended his weekend cooking spree with his signature surf and turf, a seafood pasta dish with jumbo shrimps, jumbo scallops, lobster chunks in lobster sauce, and steak.

Surf and Turf

Leftover from lobster pasta and pizza topping ingredients (kale and sausage) led to another amazing meal. 

Leftover pasta dish

Robert fed us way too much. Luckily, we got a few games of Pickleball in at Bruce and Jenny's.