Soup Bowl recap: Winners, losers and those who judge
Like a wine tasting, several entries got the shaft immediately. Not naming names here, but it was easy to eliminate. Congrats to Lowell High School Hospitality Academy and their gorgeous scallop, corn, sweet potato chowder with applewood smoked bacon! Co-Judges Augusto Gabriel and Garrett and Nicole Thurston, all of Lowell, made this resto responsibility fun. I even snuck in my pocket cam to capture the painstaking process that goes into picking Lowell's top soups in low-def. See video here
The high school's cooking program, under the expert tutelage of Kevin McGuire, was the big winner. You may remember McGuire as the former chef of Ricardos, the trattoria that nabbed third place for its Italian Divorce Soup (people's choice). A big day for Kev overall. But it was Cobblestone's creamy, buttery and briney clam chowder that Joe public named the bomb. Well deserved, or as the English would say "rightly so."
Things turned geeky in the inner circle when the male judges got into fisticuffs over the nuances between bisque and chowder (something to do with cream), but that's what we are here for. As I made my rounds in the Masonic Temple Saturday I was struck by the many great establishment turning out stellar soups. So what if hospitals and institutions are encroaching on this event? As Augusto pointed out soup is supposed to be medicinal. Let the healing begin. What was your favorite weekend remedy?
My little circle of foodie friends also declared Lowell High the finest - despite our love of several other soups. We almost didn't want to... we thought, surely one of the restaurants had to be tops... but nope, we couldn't take our mind off the Lowell High entry! I hope they'll let me know when they have a high school cook-off, because I'll be there in a moment's notice to do some sampling!
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I liked Mambo's soup. Had a sausage at the Worthen...damn good. Does anyone agree with me that draft beer just taste better at the Worthen?
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