Casserole Queens Get Jobbed by Bobby Flay
Okay, it may have aired for the first time last year. But I just saw it last week on the Food Network. Bobby Flay, the master of just about everything there is the food world these days, came to Austin to “throw down” against Sandy Pollock and Christy Cook, Austin’s self proclaimed “Casserole Queens.” They squared off against each other with Chicken Pot Pie being the star of the show. They held the event at Speakeasy and if you’re familiar with the Throwdown process, each party prepared a sample of their very best in the pot pie genre.
The Queens, who I’m going to feature next week in a profile, produced one of the best looking pot pies I’ve ever seen. Flay’s, on the other hand, used a Sweet Potato crust and looked, well, kind of dry. Indeed, one of the judges, Kevin from The Woodlands (who make a pretty decent pot pie themselves) said Flay’s was “kind of dry.” The other judge, Fredricksburg pastry luminary Rebecca Rather concurred.
Even so, when the vote was final, Flay had another victory in his apron, and the Queens came in second. Had they asked me to be a judge, I would have given the nod to the Queens. And I’m still smarting over the Iron Chef of a few years ago where Flay beat Austin’s David Bull when the dish was wild boar. Are you kidding me? No way Bull should should have lost that one. But c’est la vie, oui? We all live to cook another day.
