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As the Editor-in-Chief of RecipeGeek.com, an online magazine dedicated to food and recipes, and the mom to 2 small (but decidedly messy) kids, you can imagine that my days revolve around life in the kitchen and involve A LOT of mess. But even I wasn’t prepared for the amount of mess that can occur in a professional kitchen being run by 2 (dare I say ‘novice’) cooks. I was fortunate enough to get invited to experience behind-the-scenes access to an extremely exciting new show being aired this summer by the Food Network, called Chef in Your Ear, fittingly sponsored by Viva Vantage paper towels. The concept is truly amazing: 2 sound-proof booths, 2 professional chefs (who sit in these booths) and the 2 before-mentioned novice cooks (who really and truly didn’t know a thing about cooking) who are instructed via headphones by the professional chefs on how to cook a stunning meal, using equally stunning ingredients. In the episode that we witnessed, the dish being made was Eggplant Parmesan. Rustic, delicious, vibrant, authentic. But let’s be honest, anyone who has made it before knows it’s messy business. Especially when it’s being made by someone who doesn’t really know their way around a home kitchen, let alone a professional one.
Image may be NSFW.
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This episode featured the amazing Devon Collins, owner of Delica Kitchen in Toronto, whose 3 beautiful restaurants cater to a hungry lunch crowd, offering authentic, all natural, fresh and simply delicious food. Daughter of the family who actually founded ACE Bakery, Collins comes from a major foodie background and she definitely knows her way around ANY kitchen. The second professional chef was none other than Rob Rossi, executive chef and owner of Bestellen restaurant in Toronto. Bestellen (and Rossi himself) are making a name for themselves by serving and highlighting global cuisine, heavily influenced by a lifetime of his family favourites. Each professional chef is paired with an amateur chef (who they don’t actually meet or get to talk to before-hand) and are shown to their booths where they will instruct the novice cooks from. The beautiful bounty of ingredients they get to work with are presented and they are told the name of the dish they will have to prepare. And then it’s off to the races. And seriously, it was. This episode took off fast and furious (with a slip and fall that, thankfully, amounted to no serious injury and a trooper ready to go on to attempt to win this battle,) and right from the get-go, there were messes to clean up and unique ways to use Viva’s exceptionally strong, durable and stretchy paper towel being seen everywhere.
Because, Viva Vantage towels have the perfect combination of strength, stretch and softness to tackle everyday messes, they can be used in so many different ways in a professional, or even your home, kitchen. Throughout the episode we had many opportunities to see what these paper towels were really made of, and we witnessed the professional chefs using paper towels in unique and clever ways. One that stood out to me was when we saw Collins instructing her novice cook (the lovely lady who had fallen at the start) to line a large baking sheet with paper towels and then place her thick slices of eggplant on it to absorb the excess liquid that comes out of them after being generously sprinkled with salt. With their unique texture, these towels stretch to give incredible strength and durability so they were able to absorb all of the excess liquid from the eggplant and never rip or tear. And, with Choose-A-Sheet, the cook was able to choose the right size towel for the job and not create unnecessary waste. When I had the opportunity to speak with Collins after filming had finished, I asked her what 3 tips she would give people on how to keep a clean and tidy kitchen. Her response? 1. Always use a different cutting board for veg, protein and fish to avoid cross contamination. 2. Wash hands often in between doing things 3. Keep your countertops nice and dry using clean paper towel.
In Rossi’s neck of the woods we saw his novice chef constantly using paper towels to clean up after his (many) mishaps and messes. There were the spilled eggs along with eggshells (being used to bread the eggplant,) the tomato splatter from the (seriously awesome) tomato sauce he was creating and the mess of chopped onion, garlic and herbs left on his cutting board. Coincidentally, he also used paper towels to absorb excess liquid from the eggplant (apparently good chefs think alike!) While watching Rossi’s novice chef tackle the cleaning it was clear that Viva paper towels were next level. The revolutionary V-Flex Weave allows the towels to flex and conform to take on ANY MESS and their super flexible nature allow them to get into all of those nooks and crannies in the kitchen, without breaking up. I was beginning to see that with Viva Vantage towels you get this amazing flexibility and absorbency unlike most other paper towels I have ever used. But overall, one of my favourite uses of paper towels that I saw was actually one that I frequently use in my own kitchen. Washing fresh herbs as soon as you get them home from the shop, wrapping them loosely in clean paper towel and then storing them in the fridge. It was nice to see something that I actually do in my own kitchen being replicated by these amazing chefs!
And then before we knew it, it was time to select a winner. Afrim Pristine, owner of the Cheese Boutique, was the appointed judge and he had the daunting task ahead of him of choosing a winning dish. Select Rob Rossi’s simple, rustic, yet super-yummy looking eggplant parmesan as the winner? Or, instead, choose Devon Collins’s ultra-refined and elegant take on a classic eggplant parmesan. The one thing that was increasingly apparent as the episode unfolded was that the real winner in any kitchen (be it professional or home) is Viva Vantage paper towels.
This post was brought to you by Viva® Vantage*, however the images and opinions are my own. For more information please visit www.vivatowels.ca.