Dinning Hall Wing P0rn

Breaded wings tossed by the chef's in BBQ sauce on a sunny November lunch.

Adding some 3rd Degree Sauce. Is that too explicit?

Mmmmmmmm.

Wing P0Rn: Chestnut Jan 2012

My Supper Tonight - can you get food like this at your work?

Breaded & spiced wings, tossed in BBQ sauce. I've added Frank's hot sauce. Curly fries on the bottom.

Wing P0rn: Caf "Pub Style" Wings

glut•tony
noun \ˈglət-nē, ˈglə-tə-nē\
plural glut•ton•ies

Definition of GLUTTONY

1:   excess in eating or drinking
2:   greedy or excessive indulgence

Examples of GLUTTONY

1:   the view that gluttony is a serious failure in self-discipline
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gluttony

That was me tonight at dinner in the caf. 3 plates of breaded wings that the chef's tossed in BBQ sauce. I added Frank's Red Hot and Sriracha. I indulged. I ate in excess. I failed in self-discipline (although the challenge of eating lots of spicy wings requires a form of discipline). The point is, dinner was good.

Chestnut Battle of the Wings: Behind the Scenes

It's Coming . . .

Yes, its less than 7 days away - Chestnut's Battle of the Wings. 4 Chef's competing for top honours as they fight to create the best wings. No matter which one claims victory, we all win.

Last year they brought me in from Ottawa to be a judge which was awesome. This year, well I'm already here. And there has been buzz for the past month from the Chef's about how this battle will go down differently.

Last week I was invited behind the scenes to see the sauces being tested. It was great being in the kitchen watching how much hard work and passion goes into our food. It happened to be a regularly scheduled wing night in the caf and the above photo shows the 400 lbs of wings that is being used. Last year it was over 800 lbs for Battle of the Wings.

Aboce is a collage of some of the pictures of wings being prepared. Tossed wings, marinating wings, deep frying, sauces, spices - it was quite an afternoon. I did some video and there will eventually be a WKTV episode on Battle of the Wings.

During my tastings, I kept my thoughts and tastes to my self so as not to influence anyone, so I'm not going to comment on how yummy they all were. I will say that it's going to be a tough decision.

Above on the right is Chef Low with his wing ringer Berto who has devised a special tandoori wing.

Chef Fitzroy was preparing his special jerk wings.

Chef Olivia wasn't sure what she was going to do, so she was trying a couple of recipes. Above is a dry spiced wing.

Olivia also tried a spicy hot wing above - but a lot of the other kitchen staff found them too spicy. I didn't . . .

The executive chef, Jaco, wasn't letting others sample his secret recipe that day. But a few days ago he gave me a plate to try. I didn't have my camera so no photo, but try and imagine for yourself.

I can't wait.

Chestnut Tree Buffalo Wing Lunch

Once again, I'm sorry. I'm showing you food that most of you can't have. This is more like food pornography than a review. Look but don't touch. Salivate, but cannot sample. I know, I'm a bit of bastard.

This is from a lunch a few weeks ago where they served 'Buffalo Wings'. 

The specialty salad for lunch was hand tossed Greek salad. I went with cucumber, tomato, red onion, dressing and feta, lots of feta. A few pita chips on the side, and it was basically a meal itself.

'Buffalo' Wings. Deep fried: check. Buffalo sauce: check. Naked chicken: no. Breaded wings. So not authentic Buffalo Wings, but damn good wings none the less.

Crispy, wet wings. 

Very saucy wings, with a bit of heat made them perfect for everyone. 

Maybe a tad oily. Ok a lot oily.

I'm salivating just thinking about it now. I'm sure you are too.

Chestnut Wing Night with the Grads

Another wing night in the caf. I'm spoiled I tell you. This night I was sitting with some of my staff and some of the Grad students living in the building. We had to fight a little to get a full plate of wings, but that didn't stop us from enjoying some crispy chicken.

Chris is a machine when it comes to food. The chickens did not know what was coming when he walked into the caf. I won't comment on his choice of honey garlic though.

 Simon had a very healthy balance of chicken and veggies. 

Like Chris, P (name withheld) also championed plate after plate. How can you not love high quality wings at a buffet? How can you not love P's make-shift bib?

Jemy was fearless in her attack on her wings. She was equally fearless with her BBQ mix with suicide sauce. 

Nathan demonstrates his eating technique of destroying chicken, sans sauce. 

Megna went all out with her wings - mixing all the sauces together for her wing creation.

The wings were a bit inconsistent this evening. Overall they were lightly dusted, but some wings came out with a bit of sauce on them . . .

While others were breaded, sauceless and very crispy. No matter what way you went though, we were all winners.

I went with my technique of putting dry wings in a bowl, applying sauce (suicide of course) and then tossing with a bowl on top. The chicken looks and tastes great before the sauce, but the finished product was also so good too.

The guys went back for plate after plate (me too). And Simon is just crazy. I love it.

Chris ended the meal with creative heaven. He heated two chocolate chip cookies and filled  it with chocolate ice cream to make a post-wing decadent desert. Brilliant.

I'm stuffed just writing and looking at these pictures. Mmmmm, so good.  Thanks to all my photo subjects for posing while I snap their meals - study hard and enjoy the fuel.

Chestnut Tree Wing Lunch: Teasing, Explosions and Good Byes.

I'm being a bit of a tease, so I apologize.

I've been fortunate enough that I've been getting restaurant quality wings that A) I didn't make, and B) The public can't get either. It's more food porn than anything else. I'm back in the caf, and wings came up again in the rotation. This time it was lunch, and I came prepared.

They saw me coming and gave me a special order of wings, sauce-less, curly fry-less, and heaped.

These were some very crispy breaded wings. A fried chicken that would be great on it's own. Today for lunch they are plating wings (about 5 to a plate) sauced either in honey garlic or BBQ sauce, with a side of curly fries.

I wasn't alone either; my co-workers were joining me in this noon-time wing-a-thon.

Kat was back with her honey garlic wings. You can't tell me she isn't enjoying those wings.

Sarah was also eating wing with us. BBQ was her choice of sauce, and you can tell it was good because it was all over her fingers. Also declining to be on camera and without wings were Laura and Andrea. Actually Laura and I had flipped plates: mine was all wings, hers were all curly fries.

Now I showed you the sauce-less wings I had, but I didn't eat them like that. I brought down some of Nathan's Scotch Bonnet sauce that he gave me a couple of weeks ago during the last wing night. But I really wanted to coat the wings in the sauce, so I had to improvise.

Simple instructions. Just call me Wing MacGyver.

Those wings were perfectly sauced. The smell coming off them was great and I just loved how they looked wet, hot and sloppy. Speaking of sloppy . . .

While trying to squeeze the sauce out of the bottle, a chili seed got stuck, causing a build up, when BLAM! Sauce explosion. All over Kat. All over me. I am so sorry Kat. I'm glad I live in my place of work, because I HAD to change after lunch. Again, sorry Kat.

I was mega hungry and with AYCE wings, I had to go back for more. I grabbed a plate of BBQ wings, and suicided them up.

This created a sweeter wing, very gooey, but still lots of layered burn from the suicide sauce. It was soo good. I was a very happy with lunch.

And I have some sad news for me and the dining hall; Sous Chef Nathan is leaving us to take over a dinning hall on his own. The caf will not be the same without him, but I wish him the best and I know he will make a big difference where he is going. Thank you Nathan for all your hard work, our conversations and for the chicken wing/suicide sauce love.