The Nibble Editors were on hand to taste the cakes and bonbons, along with delicious Pol Roger Champagne, one of our favorites. Although we didn’t have a vote, we did have an opinion.

– The pastry chefs seemed to take on their own theme of mousse and gelee: almost every cake we tasted was made of layers of mousse, mousse and more mousse, sometimes with gelee. It got to the point where we felt we were in a mousse competition, and wanted to send out for a piece of flour-based cake! If this is any indication of pastry trends, ladies and gentlemen, the retro mousse cake is back.

– A panel of highly esteemed chefs judged the competition; none of our favorites took an award. Note that our favorites were based on taste rather than appearance, as all of the cakes were attractive. Awards were given to the overall entry, which focused on the “showpiece” sculpture, as well as the cake and the bonbon.

– First place went to Ajith Saputhanthri, of Russo’s On The Bay restaurant in Howard Beach, NY. His showpiece, called “Curtain Call,” featured a hand-carved solid chocolate sculpture depicting intricate folds of a theater curtain and theatrical mask sculptures. His cake was a combination of Earl Grey tea chocolate mousse and a pomegranate-raspberry-hibiscus gelee, and his bonbon included lime and bittersweet chocolate. Salvatore Settepani took second place with his “Phantom Of The Opera”-themed showpiece and passion fruit, hazelnut and ginger-white peach cake. Third place went to Andrew Chlebana for his “Homage To Broadway” showpiece and tropical caramel-chocolate cake.

– We were disappointed to see that our favorite cake didn’t receive even honorable mention status. We were wowed by the cake made by Jose Manuel Hernandez of Fiamma Restaurant in New York City. It had a top layer of milk chocolate gelee and a middle of passion fruit gelee on top of—gasp—a real piece of hazelnut cake. The sweet-tart contrast of chocolate and passionfruit and the tempered, non-overpowering sweetness really, well, took the cake. Chef Hernandez, please invite us down for some more!

Despite our critique, we know how hard each of these pastry chefs work, and how committed they are to creating beautiful desserts for their customers, and how much time and sacrifice went into their entries. We look forward to next year’s competition.

Create an original dessert recipe using Fairytale Brownies (which come in a multitude of inspirational flavors). What do you win?

– Grand Prize: A year of brownies—a Special Occasion Dozen sent to you or a gift recipient of your choice every month for a consecutive year. Retail value including shipping equals $562.20.
– 1st Runner Up: 9 months of brownies—a Special Occasion Dozen sent to you or a gift recipient of your choice every month for 9 consecutive months. Retail value including shipping equals $421.65.
– 2nd Runner Up: 6 months of brownies—a Special Occasion Dozen sent to you or a gift recipient of your choice every month for 6 consecutive months. Retail value including shipping equals $276.30.

Contest deadline date is Sunday, May 31, 2009, and your entry must include a photo. Contest details are at http://blog.brownies.com/blog/internal-hidden/0/0/fairytale-brownies-receipt-contest/n.

Read our review of Fairytale Brownies.

Discover the history of the brownie, an American invention.

(As one NIBBLE staffer commented, “I not only spit it out, I also had to scrape my tongue.”) Generally at the Fancy Food Show, it never gets this bad; even in the supermarket, it doesn’t.

But as we were picking up a few supermarket items this week, we found a contender for the worst thing tasted this year.

The market was out of the organic brand of tomato juice we usually buy. As our eyes scanned the shelves, they noticed Clamato juice, a brand owned by Cadbury-Schweppes that we haven’t had in more than 20 years.

Hmm, we thought, healthy tomato juice and healthy clam juice combined. We’re in!

Ladies and gentlemen: Read the labels before buying, even on what you think is a simple bottle of juice!

Too much sugar in our savory foods!

Because when we got home and poured ourselves what we thought would be a healthy, tasty glass of it, we couldn’t believe our taste buds. Think tomato juice with tablespoons of sugar mixed in—only it was high fructose corn syrup. When we went back to the store, shell-shocked (note pun), we compared the ingredients in the Tomato Clam Juice Cocktail from White Rose. Same sad story. Same vile taste.

Why, oh why, does Big Manufacturing have to throw sweetener into every savory product from bagels to soup to tomato juice?

Not only does it taste horrific (to the refined palate, anyway—obviously somebody is buying it). It adds sugar calories where they aren’t needed or wanted, contributes to the obesity epidemic and warps the palates of the majority of Americans who don’t know better and think that this is what food is supposed to taste like.

We’re so spooked by this, we’re going to start reading labels on milk and egg cartons.

Sunnybay Mediterranean Marinade

This marinade is made from extra virgin olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar and a proprietary blend of herbs and spices. You don’t have to look hard to see the mustard seed: the jar is 3/4 chunky bits of seasoning topped off with the oil (shake jar to blend). If you like garlic and mustard seed, this elegant marinade has lots of both—neither overpowering. http://www.sunnybayinc.com.

Carolina Gold Classic Sauce

While we used them on chicken, they are versatile for just about anything.

Since Elizabethan times at least, restaurants provided extra-large napkins—not only because people ate with their hands, but they used them to wrap up and take home any leftovers. Paper bags did come around in time, but in 1949, Al Meister, owner of a Chicago-based packaging company called Bagcraft Papercon, developed a coated paper bag that was grease-resistant. He is credited with inventing the “doggie bag”—and the take-out bag, for that matter. Grease-resistant soon evolved into foil-coated bags with quirky drawings of Fido, with the blaring headline, “Doggie bag.” No wonder people of good breeding didn’t want to be seen carrying them!

But the lesson here, boys and girls, is no matter how casual or fine the restaurant, no matter how large or small the amount of leftover food: You’ll be sorry you didn’t take it home. You’ve paid for it, it’s yours, and management doesn’t like to see good food thrown out. They’re flattered that you like it so much, you want to take it home.

By the way, while New Yorkers previously could not remove wine from restaurants, the State Liquor Authority informs us as of September 9, 2004, that rule was changed, enabling you to benefit financially from a “Wine Doggie Bag” as well. We quote:

“Legislation has been enacted which provides a procedure under which a restaurant licensee may permit a patron, following the patron’s consumption of a full course meal, to remove one partially consumed bottle of wine from the restaurant. The limitations, conditions, and procedures regarding a restaurant patron’s removal of one partially consumed bottle of wine from the restaurant are discussed in Bulletin No. 588. To view this bulletin click on the following link: SLA Bulletin No. 588”

Salient points from the pdf:

“At the conclusion of the meal, the restaurant patron must be provided with a dated receipt which indicates both the purchase of a full course meal and the purchase of the wine. A receipt which is undated does not satisfy the requirements of the statute. A receipt which fails to indicate that the wine was purchased in connection with a full course meal is insufficient, because the statute requires that the wine be purchased in connection with a full course meal. Before a restaurant licensee may permit a partially consumed bottle of wine to leave the restaurant, the restaurant licensee or an agent of the restaurant licensee must:

• securely reseal the bottle of wine;
• place the resealed bottle in a one-time-use tamper-proof transparent bag, and
• securely seal the bag.

The one-time-use tamper-proof transparent bag must insure that the patron cannot gain access to the bottle while in transit after the bag is sealed.”

What this means is, you can’t open the bottle to drink until you get home—no drinking and driving. The bag is transparent so that you can’t hide the goods from any law official stopping you in transit. Regulations for wine will vary according to each state’s rules.