judging the kitchensurfing lobster roller

photo 1 (1)

Gorgeous photo, right?! I wish I could take the credit. That’s all Daniel Krieger aka Smooth Dude, who not only took that shot — but taught me a few things about food photography too. Lesson 1: food often looks best shot from above, in natural light.

smooth dude photo

Lesson 2: brighten, sharpen and adjust your photos before posting on instagram. Never straight from the camera roll. NOTED.

smooth dude lessons

But wait, back to why I’m with these fancy food people. There’s this guy Ben. He runs a company called Kitchensurfing, which is like Uber for personal chefs. (On call, they will cook a romantic dinner for two, a dinner party for all your friends, or what I plan on using it for — come over and cook with you, and teach you a few things. BOOM.) So Ben asked my friend Noa if she would judge this lobster roll contest. She was like, I don’t eat lobster, but my friend Jamie does. She put us all in touch and obviously I was like, yea.

me smiling, about to eat

Who wouldn’t wanna judge a lobster roll contest? Especially since our mutual friend Lock was already on board. And Lock knows lobster rolls — but more on that in a minute. When I got there, the 4 competing chefs were assembling their rolls for the 30 or so people there to eat/hang, plus us three judges. I know, yum.

dishing lobster rolls

Then came the fun part, the eating. (That’s Ben in the middle, Lock on the right.) And man, these lobster rolls were no joke.

judges discussing

But Lock had some ‘splainin to do. See he’s from Maine, and up there they don’t mess around about lobster rolls. He tells us they should stick to the classic. No fancy condiments or add-ons, not too much mayo, the roll needs to be properly buttered and toasted, and it should be mainly claw meat. Duh.

lock explaining lobster

But then came Evelyn’s lobster roll. She’s a chef at Kinshop — and girlfriend stayed true to her hustle, serving up a delicious, spicy Korean take on the classic.

chefs with rolls

I loved it! Even though Ben tried to convince me otherwise, I gave her the highest score — 2 points more than the classic, though I loved that one too. You’d have to work really hard to screw up a lobster roll to the point where I don’t love it.

Ben + I tallying votes

But in the end, the classic from Littleneck in Brooklyn won the evening. They celebrated!

Littleneck FTW

I went home and went to bed. The next morning, I recapped the event with Pat on NY1.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl1zEtXIHq0&feature=youtu.be]

And now, here for all of you. Thanks again Ben, Lock — and Noa!

One thought on “judging the kitchensurfing lobster roller

  1. The photo at the top looks sharp…Can’t wait to see how your food looks now! As far as lobster rolls…the more natural tasting the better. Butter never hurt a lobster either.

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