This Wednesday, I got to attend the McDonald’s Perfect Pairing - an event where six culinary students from the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Atlanta competed for a scholarship—Top Chef style. Each student paired an item off of McDonald’s menu with one of their new McCafe drinks. The McCafe items feature drinks such as an iced mocha, latte and cappuccino. Each pairing was then presented to a panel of judges who tasted and scored each student’s entry.
Needless to say I was skeptical from the beginning. To be honest--I just can’t imagine sitting down to eat lunch and thinking that a latte would best complement my chicken nuggets. Admittedly, I am a coffee snob and addict--yet some things just don’t work well with coffee. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much innovation and thought went into some of the pairings that the culinary students presented.Some of the students paired what I found to be more common sense items together. For example, an iced caramel latte with an apple walnut salad, or a bacon, egg and cheese with hot chocolate. Neither of these seemed too far out of the realm of a normal meal. One student, Phillip McCrillis, branched out and truly impressed me... it also seemed to be the one meal the judges continued to nibble at while scoring and listening to Phillip talk.
Phillip’s pairing, No Way Mole, was a winner, not only in my book but also for the judges who selected Phillip as the winner. He paired a Southwestern chicken sandwich (Southwest BBQ sauce on the side), baked apple pie with vanilla ice-cream adorned with a crushed sugar cone on top, with an iced mocha. He came upon the flavor as he was experimenting with different menu items and put all of these items in his mouth at the same time. With all the items together he exclaimed “No way mole!" Mole is a popular Mexican sauce tinged with a chocolate flavor that Phillip swears you can recreate with these common McDonald’s items.
Congratulations Phillip on your scholarship! For all of you who didn’t see Phillip’s pairing, head on over to McDonald's and experiment with your own pairings of the new McCafe--the options are endless.
