Sea urchins

Following on from my post about Masterchef  I have to mention sea urchins. I have never tasted one… I don’t think; I once went to a restaurant with a Chines friend when I had abalone and also jelly fish, both of which I enjoyed… there may have been sea urchin on the menu then, I really couldn’t say.

On Masterchef the chefs had to prepare sea urchins; they had several ingredients to accompany them, including cucumber and avocado. Now I have seen sea urchins but never tasted one… and definitely don’t know how to prepare one. These chefs, who are professional cooks, did not have a clue .. only one out of the five had ever cooked one before and that had been on a single occasion. The contestants had a few clues… Monica, one of the judges told them to think of oysters when they were preparing them.

So… if I as an amateur chef was presented with  sea urchins and told to think of oysters, I would think of something very delicate but with an exquisite flavour and whatever I did, I would make sure that the urchin was the main event on the plate… OK so they were nervous, with Monica Galetti glaring at me and Gregg Wallace as the other judge I think I would be very anxious… but really, I don’t think I would serve the urchins as a smear on the plate, or as a tiny ingredient among chunks of avocado, tomato and cucumber!

These chefs just don’t seem to have prepared themselves… maybe I’m wrong, but they seem to have come straight out of their kitchens and straight into the competition… an athlete wouldn’t do that, s/he would get in training!