has been racking up awards in recent years. She鈥檚 garnered accolades from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington to go with multiple James Beard Award nominations.
But it鈥檚 only now that she鈥檚 gone viral. And not because she turned out another great Italian dish from ingredients sourced from local farms.
Instead, it鈥檚 because TikTok star Danny Grubs, as he鈥檚 apt to do, asked her to
McDonalds Happy Meal turned gourmet✨
The social media video clocked in at about 2 1/2 minutes. But in about an hour鈥檚 time, she turned Chicken McNuggets, French fries and some apple pies into tortelloni.
鈥淚鈥檝e been on Iron Chef before, many, many years ago, and I鈥檝e done a lot of culinary competitions,鈥� said Brandwein. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the culinary exercise.鈥�
It鈥檚 what she does every day. While she admitted to liking the occasional McNugget, she said she cooks with a bigger picture in mind.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 my challenge. I don鈥檛 create recipes, I create dishes from ingredients, and I create them in my head, usually on the fly, very quickly,” she said.
“The McDonald’s thing was one of the things that I like to do, actually look at things, and then the synapsis start going and I鈥檓 like 鈥極K, I鈥檓 going to do this, this and this.鈥�”
This video is no longer available.
Watch video of Centrolina chef Amy Brandwein cooking crispy eggplant with 海角社区app.
She orders food for her restaurant from farms.
“I look at the raw ingredients, what鈥檚 around me, and I figure out a way to use them in interesting ways,” she said.
‘An exercise of imagination’
While millions have watched her video across multiple platforms, there鈥檚 also been some criticism.
Some of the complaints are because of the size of the finished dish presented in the video, though that really wasn鈥檛 the point of the contest.
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 meant to be an exercise on portion. It was meant to be an exercise of imagination,鈥� she said.
She also garnered a few complaints based on how she pronounced tortelloni 鈥� some users confused it with “tortellini,” which is “a different pasta altogether,” the chef said. “Tortelloni is a bigger stuffed pasta, and it鈥檚 not folded over like tortellini.”
“It pains me because I would love to just go on there every single time to correct them, but I have things to do,” she said with a laugh.
So, while Brandwein is famous in D.C. for what鈥檚 on the menu at Centrolina, around the rest of the world, it鈥檚 cooking off the menu that鈥檚 made her famous.
鈥淥h my God, it was so much fun,鈥� said Brandwein. 鈥淵eah, it was great. I loved it.鈥�
