Sunday night's episode of the cooking show "The Next Food Network Star" featured a bit of marketing genius from sponsor Red Lobster. The contestants were charged with creating a recipe for a wood-fire-grilled entree featuring fish species available from Red Lobster. You may have noticed that the latest reinvention of Orlando-based Red Lobster focuses on wood-fire grilling. The restaurants were retrofitted with wood-fire grills last fall, and their chefs went through special training to cook on them.
The winner of Sunday's show, which I'm pretty sure airs on the Food Network, was Jeffrey Saad for his recipe of tilapia in spicy broth. The broth, of course, is not done on the grill. As a result of winning the evening's competition, Saad's recipe will be featured as "today's fresh fish" selection in 690 restaurants across North America. Saad and senior executive chef Michael LaDuke were doing satellite interviews with television stations across the country this morning from a Kissimmee Red Lobster. The two also put together the video below that demonstrates how to prepare the dish. Watch that, then click here to see the recipe.
