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13 Episodes 2012 - 2012
Episode 1
22 mins
The latest cookbook Anna and Kristina are testing, "100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know", which is compiled by the people at Glamour magazine, has what Anna and Kristina believe are extremely high aspirations for half the global population. It states that a woman can get anything she wants in life by cooking and serving these dishes. The cookbook is centered around the engagement chicken recipe, which is said to have nabbed many woman a husband on the spot. In addition to the chicken recipe, they will be preparing five other dishes in two hours, each recipe with a cutesy name: man trouble mojitos, get skinny dip, I hang out with chefs watermelon & tomato salad, I'm so here for you eggplant parmesan, and you rock cupcakes. As they are making the chicken dish, they are expecting a marriage proposal from their guest taster, the suave Fabio Viviani, most famous for his appearance as a fan favorite contestant on Top Chef (2006). Chef Fabio may have some say in the matter, especially depending on his assessment of the chicken. As a backup test, they are also getting two women in serious relationships to make the chicken for their respective partners to see if an engagement ring materializes. In addition, they test different brands of soda makers for the soda water required for the mojitos.
Episode 2
22 mins
Anna and Kristina are excited by the latest cookbook they are testing, "Absolutely Chocolate", because they love chocolate and the cookbook's author claims that the recipes as a collection will satisfy any chocolate craving. They will be preparing five recipes in four hours: chocolate dipped espresso shortbread, white chocolate soufflé cakes, chocolate layer cake with mocha frosting, chocolate beignets, and chocolate nut bark. They are intimidated by their guest taster, Bruno Feldeisen, if only because he is French and is a pastry chef (head pastry chef at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver no less), the combination which scares them. Although he foresees many potential pitfalls, Chef Bruno believes that tempering chocolate may be the toughest challenge for the duo. In addition, Anna and Kristina do a taste test between natural and Dutch processed cocoa powder. And they product test different brands of burr coffee grinders, to grind the espresso beans required for their cookies.
Episode 3
22 mins
Street food is no longer solely comprised of hot dogs as evidenced by "Food Trucks", the latest cookbook Anna and Kristina are testing. The book is comprised of the actual recipes used by food truck chefs across the United States in their on-wheel establishments. They will be preparing their meal in an actual food truck, which has its own challenges, primarily in the cramped space. But the entire concept of street food will also provide a challenge in that most street food is prepared on the spot, meaning a lot of last minute work before the chef's arrival. He is Jay Robins, owner chef of the Green Machine, he who has cooked street food as well as done catering service to film sets for over twenty years. It is his truck in which they will be preparing their meal of six dishes in two hours: kimchi quesadillas, Spam sliders, tofu meatballs with tomato sauce, poutine, butter chicken, and pear crepes. Off the bat, one of the gripes that Anna and Kristina have about the book is that often the food truck owners would not divulge their secret recipes, leaving the author to come up with an alternative recipe of her own in place of that signature dish. Regardless of what happens, Anna and Kristina muse about what they would do if they were ever to open their own food truck. In addition, they taste test different types of canned luncheon meat to see if Spam truly is the one to use for their sliders. And they test different types of disposable cutlery on their use and environmental friendliness, such utensils which are staples of food truck dining.
Episode 4
22 mins
Anna and Kristina have high hopes for their latest cookbook, "The Babbo Cookbook", if only because Italian food is among their favorite, it's accessible, and the cookbook author, Mario Batali, is a king in its cuisine within North America. The cookbook's premise is that one can create meals Batali serves at his acclaimed restaurant, Babbo, at home. Wearing special attire, Anna and Kristina hope to be able to channel the spirit of Batali on cook day. They are preparing six recipes in three and a half hours: blood orange bellinis, duck bresaola with red onion jam, bucatini all'amatriciana, beef cheek ravioli, sweetbreads, and chocolate hazelnut cake. They are equally intimidated by their guest taster, Lucais Syme, co-owner and executive chef at La Quercia, which has been named restaurant of the year. Chef Lucais may have a thing or two to say especially about the amatriciana, which is his specialty. Anna admits it is her favorite pasta dish, with Chef's Lucais' being the best she's ever had. Anna's task of the day may prove to be the most challenging - preparing the homemade pasta - although Kristina may argue that peeling the sweetbreads, while perhaps not as challenging, is the most arduous. In addition, they test different brands of espresso makers that use packaged pods, the espresso which they require for the cake. And they taste test different brands and styles of prosecco for the bellinis.
Episode 5
22 mins
Anna and Kristina are slightly intimidated by preparing dishes from "The Essential Pepin" because they consider Jacques Pepin one of the truly great chefs, plus the cookbook contains only his favorite recipes - all 700 of them. They are hoping that the DVD that comes along with the book will be an essential part of this cookbook's experience. They are preparing six dishes in four hours: cranberry bean and tuna salad, fine herbs omelet, chicken ballottine stuffed with red rice, beef tournedos in a red wine sauce, a cheese plate with apples and pecans, and Meme's apple tart. They are equally intimidated by their guest taster, Ned Bell, the executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver, he who has a background in French cooking like Pepin. Chef Bell is skeptical that Anna and Kristina have the skills to pull off a French meal. They will have some assistance from the DVD in learning how to debone and truss a whole chicken for the ballottine, and from chef Julian Bond, who teaches them the proper way to use a chef knife to chop and chiffonade. They also get a lesson in choosing cheeses for an appetizer board and a dessert board from cheese sellers, brothers Andrew Benton and Jonah Benton. Anna and Kristina expect the chicken dish to be the most difficult, but it's the dish prepared in front of Chef Bell that they find is deceptively as difficult for the novice cook.
Episode 6
22 mins
Anna and Kristina are both excited and nervous about their next cookbook, "My Pizza": excited because pizza is their favorite food; nervous because pizza is their favorite food. The cookbook's author, Jim Lahey, claims his recipes replicate what can be achieved in a commercial wood burning oven - where temperatures can exceed 1,000ºF, required for a good pizza crust - in a standard home oven, with the help of a pizza stone. As such, they, with the help of local pizza maker Salvatore Miele, test different types of pizza stones and compare the finished crusts to one cooked in a wood burning oven. In three hours, they plan to prepare four different types of pizzas - margherita pizza with basic tomato sauce, pepperoni pizza (made with merguez) with red pepper sauce, three mushroom pizza with béchamel, and bird's nest pizza - plus two additional recipes from the book, namely roasted squash and pumpkin seed salad, and corn gelato. They have two extra reasons to be nervous: their guest taster is Tony Gemignani, a world champion pizza maker; and they plan on baking the four pizzas in front of Chef Tony. They hope that being more organized than usual will end up working in their favor and producing an end product worthy to stay at home for instead of needing to go to out a pizzeria. Because good ingredients are the order of the day especially for the margherita pizza, they also learn how to make buffalo mozzarella from cheese maker, Paul Sutter.
Episode 7
22 mins
To test their latest cookbook "Mourad, New Moroccan" which focuses on modern takes of traditional Moroccan dishes, Anna and Kristina feel they can only properly do so by traveling to Marrakech, Morocco. They are in awe of the vividness of Moroccan cuisine as evidenced by the food markets, most specifically the spice markets, which comprise an integral part of food preparation. In three and half hours, they will prepare six dishes: figs, crème fraiche, arugula & mint salad, grilled kefta, harrisa rolls, vegetable tagine, basteeya, and almond cookies. Beyond the unfamiliarity with some of the ingredients, they are also unfamiliar with their kitchen and what is available in it, on which they will blame if their meal is a disaster. They are nervous about meeting their guest chef, as she is Chafaï Choumicha, a Moroccan celebrity chef with a rock star status in Morocco. They just hope that if non-English speaking Chef Chafaï doesn't like the food, it won't come through in the translation. As they will be using one in the preparation of their meal, they also test different types of tagines available commercially in Canada against the standard terra cotta tagine used in most Moroccan kitchens.
Episode 8
22 mins
Anna & Kristina are really hoping that they will like the latest cookbook they are testing, "Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood", if only because they like homey food, country music and Yearwood as a musician. It is a cookbook filled with her family's southern favorites, and she vouches for every single recipe in the book. It is family styled down home comfort food, which means ease which in turn means sometimes shortcuts in terms of the addition of processed foods. She also makes no apologies that the recipes are by no means low fat. Anna & Kristina are preparing six dishes in two and a half hours: mama's waffles with maple syrup, Georgia pate, sweetened iced tea, baked spaghetti, chicken piccata, and red velvet cake. Their guest taster knows a thing or two about down home southern cooking as he is Park Heffelfinger, the owner and executive chef of the Memphis Blues chain of southern barbecue restaurants in Vancouver. As a seasoned chef, will he agree with Yearwood's use of all that processed food? In addition, Anna & Kristina test different models of waffle irons.
Episode 9
22 mins
In testing their latest cookbook "Artisanal Gluten-Free", Anna and Kristina are heading into the territory of one of the hottest food trends, gluten free cooking, a bandwagon that Kristina has already jumped on for naturopath directed health reasons, but that Anna is resisting as a bread lover who has never eaten a gluten-free baked product that she has actually enjoyed. They provide some facts and debunk some myths about what it means to eat gluten-free, and hope that the cookbook provides tasty recipes which Anna in particular feels is missing from most gluten-free food. They are preparing seven dishes in three hours: bruschetta, mesculun salad, margherita pizza, lasagna, Mexican pork tenderloin, and angel food cake. The key to the book is making one's own gluten-free all-purpose flour mixture, which will be used in all the recipes which require flour and which they also test against store bought gluten-free flour mixes. Their guest taster may have a thing or two to say about their efforts, as he is Ray Porcellato, founder of Cloud 9, a gluten-free bakery. Chef Ray ultimately gives Anna and Kristina advice about gluten-free expectations. All three also have one major gripe about the book: that it contains too many recipes that would have been gluten-free anyway in their standard form.
Episode 10
22 mins
The latest cookbook Anna and Kristina are testing, "The Family Meal", was compiled by executive chef Ferran Adrià, and contains thirty-one different "family meal" menus - meals shared by restaurant staff and thus can be transferred to a home family situation - prepared at his award winning restaurant. Each menu contains a starter, a main and a dessert. The recipes included can be adjusted to serve two, six, twenty or seventy-five as need be. To test the premise of the book, they are preparing a meal for seventy-five: their guest taster, executive chef David Hawksworth, and his knowledgeable staff of seventy-four at Hawksworth Restaurant in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia in Vancouver. Chef David has often been named Chef of the Year and Hawksworth the best restaurant in Canada, hence the added pressure in getting the meal right. They are preparing four dishes in two and a half hours: grilled lettuce heart salad, braised veal cheeks, a pureed potato side, and chocolate mousse. The timing must be precise to get the staff ready for their dinner crowd. Another added pressure is that they will be preparing the meal in Hawksworth's industrial kitchen, which they are unfamiliar with and which Chef David is probably concerned about it being trashed in the process. In addition, they learn about the current veal farming industry, which has had a long history of bad press for the treatment of the animals in their farming. And they test different brands of immersion blenders, which they will be using to prepare the potato dish.
Episode 11
22 mins
Anna and Kristina go into testing their latest cookbook, "The Engine 2 Diet", with some skepticism if only because of the overly extreme nature of the book's premise. They do believe in eating healthy to a degree, but the book, written by former athlete turned firefighter Rip Esselstyn, promises that one can eat more by eating right, and still lose weight, among other health benefits, such as lowering cholesterol and losing body fat... all within four weeks. They believe the diet is overly restrictive - cutting out caffeine, alcohol, sugar, dairy, meat, and olive oil - which they don't mind in and of itself, but only if the resulting meals are tasty and satisfying. They are making six dishes in three hours: kale butter (which is said to be a replacement for peanut butter), spinach salad with homemade croûtons, eggless omelet with salsa, shepherd's pie, tofu steaks (which Esselstyn claims rivals anything from a steak house) with mushrooms and green beans and mashed potatoes, and fruit pie with a date-nut crust. Their guest taster is also skeptical. He is fitness and nutrition expert Harley Pasternak. In looking at the recipes, he does not agree with many of the specifics such as not substituting healthier options for certain ingredients, or the excessive amount of sugar, albeit natural, in the dessert. Will the book surprise them all? To test the cookbook premise further, they get three people to go on the diet for four weeks and measure their weight, body fat and cholesterol before and after, as well as gage their ability to stay on the diet. They also get a lesson in fire safety in the kitchen and the use of fire extinguishers from Fire Captain, Gabe Roder.
Episode 12
22 mins
The latest cookbook Anna ad Kristina are testing, "Whitewater Cooks with Friends", celebrates everything related to summer entertaining and the want to share food with friends. As sharing is a large component of the book's philosophy, the collection of recipes is actually from many different contributors, all friends of the author. Anna and Kristina are preparing six recipes in three hours: Pacific sashimi towers, gazpacho with dungeness crab and avocado salsa, Susi's jewelled salad, Michele's chicken charmoula, Gussy's ribs, and rolled pavlova with summer fruit. They're hoping that their guest taster will feel the love of summer and sharing epitomized by the book. He is executive chef Anthony Sedlak, who is known for having a good time while nonetheless speaking his mind. Despite Anna and Kristina believing the recipes are generally easy but time consuming, Chef Anthony has his doubts that they can pull off the meal, especially the complicated plating. As they are barbecuing or grilling many of their dishes, Anna and Kristina get a lesson on essential grill utensils from pit master Angie Quaale. And they learn about fresh berries at Krause Berry Farm. Anna and Kristina end with a sad personal note about Chef Anthony.
Episode 13
22 mins
Anna and Kristina, who are in Trinity NL, recognize the unique character of Newfoundland, and the special place that "The Treasury of Newfoundland Dishes" - the fiftieth anniversary edition which they are using as their latest cookbook - has within its culture. The cookbook itself is comprised of recipes from a multitude of local contributors, and of all food traditional in Newfoundland. They are preparing five dishes in four hours: baked cod tongues, lima bean loaf, pork and turnip pie, moose stew with dumplings, and braided orange roll. Their guest taster is local executive chef Jeremy Charles, the golden boy in the Newfoundland restaurant scene. As he is known for being easy going, they are hoping he will give them an easy ride in his judgment of their food. It may be the unknown that give Anna and Kristina the most problem in their cook day. While in Newfoundland, Anna and Kristina soak in the local culture by speaking with famed Newfoundland comedienne Mary Walsh, searching for moose which are purportedly everywhere on the island, and fishing for cod for their cod tongues dish.