We've signed up 16 local Grill-Masters for our Summer-long BBQ Competition. They will be facing off, two at a time every Sunday afternoon, grilling up their specialty in our backyard here at Project Parlor. Each Sunday there will be one winner who will be invited back to face off against another winning chef later in the summer and so on and so forth until we crown our Grill-Master Champion of Project Parlor 2010 on September 5th. Some-sort of prize and ridiculous meat-inspired trophy will be awarded and the winner's name will be engraved on a plaque that will hang on our wall in the bar for all time.
This week's competitors:
Martha Sarfaty:
Martha was born unto a family of foodies and waited her first table at the tender age of 5. From that moment on, she's been stuck in food service toiling away for tips but loving every minute of it if only because, with restaurant work, comes free dinner. She is an avid home cook, green-market junkie, and a pescetarian. She prefers cooking and eating local and sustainable food, but makes the rare exception for sub-par burritos in her Bushwick 'hood.
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Davide Porcu:
A boy born in a little town called Sinnai on the small island of Sargedna in Italy: he honed his craft with his mother and grandmother, cooking three proper Italian meals a day in his family kitchen. He began his career at fourteen years of age at Ziminera Ristorante in Cagliri, Italy as a dishwasher and has since held every position from waiter to cook in a variety of fine restaurants, most recently at Keith McNally's New York restaurant; Morandi. His passion is traditional Mediterranean food cooked simply and elegantly with quality ingredients.
. I've seen other restaurants use Parmesan, too! It was so summery and reminded me of going down to the Red Hook ball field eloteros.
(stretchy like mozzarella). I had a bite of the lengua (beef tongue) and the pork. Both were pretty well seasoned, garnished with simple chopped onion and cilantro on double corn tortillas.
WHEY, CANOLA OIL, MILK, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, MALTODEXTRIN , SODIUM PHOSPHATE, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SALT, LACTIC ACID, SODIUM ALGINATE, MUSTARD FLOUR, WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE (VINEGAR, MOLASSES, CORN SYRUP, WATER, SALT, CARAMEL COLOR, GARLIC POWDER, SUGAR, SPICES, TAMARIND, NATURAL FLAVOR), SORBIC ACID AS A PRESERVATIVE, MILKFAT, CHEESE CULTURE, OLEORESIN PAPRIKA (COLOR), ANNATTO (COLOR), NATURAL FLAVOR, ENZYMES.Nope! No MSG...! The sauce is surprisingly complex, tamarind?! Maybe we should try making some!
, gorgonzola and fennel). We sat outside at one of the few sidewalk tables. Our host leaned out a service window and whistled to get our attention. He passed us two sandwiches by holding the folded corners of a parchment square, as if he was a stork delivering us a delicate bundle. He was capitally Italian, almost straight out of a mafia movie! 
, warm enough to crisp the edges but still pliable to roll up. Lamb and gorgonzola is a pairing I never would have imagined, but it works! Spicy Merguez mellowed out by the saltiness of Italian blue cheese! I couldn't decide which sandwich was better and if I had ever had sandwiches such as these. Definitely high up there on my "You have to try this!" list.
