Last night, Kitchen Conservatory hosted another competitive cooking extravaganza. Defending champion Kevin Nashan joined with Josh Galliano on one team challenged by Bill Burge and Chuck Friedhoff. The secret, surprise ingredient was rabbit.

The first picture shows Bill Burge (in the “I love Foie Gras” t-shirt) cutting up the rabbits and removing the rabbit loins from the saddle (backside of the rabbit). The second picture shows chef Kevin Nashan of Sidney Street browning the rabbit hind-legs.

Highlights of the “hip-hop” meal were shredded rabbit confit (slow-cooked in duck fat) on salad with red currant sauce, deep-fried buttermilk-soaked rabbit legs on fried green tomatoes, and rabbit loin wrapped in bacon on eggplant caviar. Skeptics in the audience were converted to the delicious flavor of rabbit meat!

Both teams also braised the rabbit hind-legs, which is the traditional method of cooking rabbit.

The defending champions kept their title of Kitchen Conservatory Iron Chef and were awarded a copy of our new Kitchen Conservatory celebration poster (watch for details!).

Interested in fresh (never frozen) rabbit? The rabbits came from a rabbit farm in Arkansas, Pel-Freez. Their rabbits were delicious, fresh, and nicely packaged. The rabbits also included the fresh liver, which chef Galliano of Monarch immediately snatched to make a rabbit liver mousse. Both Sidney Street and Monarch feature rabbit dishes on their menus.

A huge thank you to the four talented men who put on a great cooking show last night!