Put a pastry chef and a savory chef at a commercial-sized stovetop, then hand them an alarming quantity of corn that both need on the heat immediately.
That’s the setup for Episode 3 of Sweet. Savory. Seasonal., an exclusive Escoffier video series where two chefs go head-to-head with a single seasonal ingredient. The rules are simple: reveal the ingredient, let Chef Instructor Stefanie turn it sweet, let Chef Luke turn it savory, and pretend nobody is keeping score.
In this episode the big reveal was corn, which both chefs greeted with the kind of enthusiasm most people save for puppies and long weekends.
Here’s a quick look at who made what:
| Chef | Dish | Key Technique | How Corn Was Used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baking & Pastry Arts Chef Instructor Stefanie Bishop-Schmidt (Sweet) | Sweet corn ice cream puff with blueberry compote | Adding eggs to choux slowly; baking cereal low and slow | Sweet corn ice cream, cornmeal craquelin, and “fancy frosted flakes” |
| Chef Luke Shaffer (Savory) | Shrimp and grits with corn 5 ways | Building the sauce from shrimp heads and roasted cobs; cooking grits low and slow | Five ways: roasted cobs in the sauce, fresh kernels in the grits, the grits themselves, hot water cornbread and charred corn riblets |
Team Sweet: A Cream Puff the Size of Your Ambitions
Chef Instructor Stefanie Bishop-Schmidt’s dessert began, like all great love stories, with ice cream. She knew from the start what her centerpiece would be.
“I adore making choux, but the real star of this dish is the corn ice cream,” she says. “I figured out that I was going to make corn ice cream and then I built the dish around (it).”
The finished masterpiece:
- An oversized, slightly unreasonable cream puff to hold it all together
- Cornmeal craquelin perched on top like a little cookie hat
- Blueberry compote, because blueberries and sweet corn are secretly best friends
- Homemade “fancy frosted flakes” for crunch
- Sweet corn ice cream, the headliner and the whole reason for the season
The Star Component: How to Make Sweet Corn Ice Cream
Chef Stefanie’s secret is doubling down on the corn. She purees fresh kernels, then steeps them—cobs and all—in scalded milk, cream, and sugar. Once that sweet corn essence infuses the dairy, it’s cooked into a classic egg-yolk custard.
After straining out the corn solids, she drops the cobs back into the custard while it chills for at least a few hours or overnight, so the corn keeps infusing the mixture right up until it goes into the ice cream machine.
Why Is Choux Pastry So Tricky? Meet Pastry’s Resident Drama Queen
Choux is tricky because it’s cooked twice and needs just the right amount of egg. You first dry it out on the stovetop before baking it in the oven to puff. Then comes the egg situation, which is where choux can humble you.
“If you don’t add enough eggs, you’re not going to get that rise in the oven,” she says. “But if you add too many eggs then your dough is going to be loosey-goosey, which is what we don’t want. So you really have to make sure that you are adding your eggs slowly and you’re checking for the elasticity of the dough as you’re adding those eggs.”
Fancy Frosted Flakes: How Chef Stefanie Upgrades Plain Cornflakes
For crunch, Chef Stefanie took ordinary cornflakes and gave them a full makeover. She tossed them with melted butter (which works like edible glue), milk powder, a little sugar, and a pinch of salt. Then, she baked them low and slow until they were shatteringly crisp.
Team Savory: Chef Luke’s Shrimp and Grits (Now with 500% More Corn)
While Chef Stefanie was perfecting one glorious corn idea, Chef Luke decided ONE was for amateurs. His shrimp and grits used corn FIVE different ways:
- Sauce: corn, shrimp heads, and shells in a spicy seafood sauce
- Fresh kernels: folded into the grits at the end for fresh texture
- White Corn Grits: coarse-ground white corn whisked into a creamy base
- Hot water cornbread: crispy, 3-ingredient cornmeal nuggets
- Roasted corn riblets: because corn deserves to feel like barbecue too.
The Sauce (Where Shrimp Heads Become Legends)
“I got head-on shrimp because there’s so much flavor in the heads,” he noted. “So, if you can get head-on shrimp, do it. Then, those heads and shells went into my sauce.”
The sauce begins by rendering andouille sausage for smoke and heat, which is set aside for garnish. Next, the shrimp heads, shells, and corn cobs are roasted before joining the trinity of celery, bell pepper and onion, plus jalapeño, garlic, bay leaf and a blackening spice whose recipe remains classified.
Seafood stock went in, and the whole thing simmered into something magnificent. Chef Luke intentionally punched up the spice level, knowing the rich, creamy grits would balance out the heat.
The Secret to Creamy Grits: Low and Slow, Like a Sunday
Chef Luke cooks his grits in half water and half milk for extra creaminess. They get a vigorous whisk, then 30 to 35 minutes of gentle babysitting. Fresh corn is folded in at the end, then finished with more butter than you think. No, seriously, more than that!
What Are Corn Riblets? Meet Corn’s Cutest Form
Corn riblets are cobs cut into long strips that curl like ribs when roasted. Cut each cob crosswise into quarters, then split each piece lengthwise into quarters, producing adorable little riblets. A toss in blackening spice and a trip through the oven leaves them charred, curly and very hard to stop eating.
What Is Hot-Water Cornbread? The Three-Ingredient Miracle
“I learned this like 15 years ago in a restaurant that I worked at,” recalls Chef Luke. “It’s literally cornmeal, hot water, and salt. That’s it.”
Mix the three ingredients into a quick dough, scoop it into hot oil, and out come crispy golden corn nuggets: crunchy outside, tender inside. Put them on anything. Seriously, anything.
How Long to Cook Shrimp: The Two-Minute Grand Finale
The shrimp go in last: a sprinkle of blackening spice, about a minute per side, and done. Walking away from the pan during those two minutes is strictly forbidden. Then everything gets piled into a bowl, and the bowl gets admired.
Stove Wars: Two Chefs, Four Burners, Zero Chill
Forget the corn. Beyond the exacting technique behind the choux and the stock, sharing four burners created a lively stove-management dance.
Chef Stefanie, ever the diplomat, described the situation gracefully: “We both needed a whole lot of pots pretty much all at the same time.”
Chef Luke, however, remembers it differently. In his version, Chef Stefanie staged a full-scale takeover of his burners—compote bubbling here, ice cream base warming there, and choux dough parked right where he wanted to be—reducing him to peeling shrimp at a leisurely pace while he waited for his space back.
The Taste Test (Conducted With Mouths Full)
Chef Stefanie Tries the Shrimp and Grits
Shrimp and grits ranks among Stefanie’s all-time favorite dishes, which put her co-host under exactly zero pressure. Armed with both a fork and a spoon, she attempted the classic move of cramming every single component onto one bite.
The dish earned rave reviews across the board. She loved that the sauce brought real heat without going overboard, that the kernels gave the grits great texture, and that the cornbread nuggets were seriously crispy. The shrimp, she declared, were perfect. She offered all of this praise while still chewing, making no apologies, while Luke tried very hard to look humble.
Chef Luke Tries the Corn Cream Puff
By the time the dessert arrived, the ice cream had started to melt, so speed was of the essence. One bite in, Luke went quiet and then protested that it simply wasn’t fair.
What got him was the ice cream, which tasted unbelievably like “actual corn.” The “fancy frosted flakes” delivered serious crunch, the craquelin on top was loud enough to be its own sound effect, and the blueberries chimed in with a hit of sweet-tart contrast. Stefanie conceded the plate was a little messy but Luke waved it off, pointing out they weren’t trying to impress anyone anyway.
The Verdict: Everybody Wins (Except the Stove)
Both chefs agreed they’d done right by the corn, and both declared the other’s dish fantastic. Our savory chef felt it was worth mentioning, more than once, that his plate featured corn five times. Our sweet chef, on the other hand, pointed out that nobody was counting.
He was counting.
4 Chef Tips to Steal From the Corn Showdown
- Buy head-on shrimp. Because the heads pack a lot of flavor, and they belong in your sauce.
- Treat choux dough with care. Add eggs slowly. Loosey-goosey dough is nobody’s friend.
- Make hot water cornbread tonight. It’s just cornmeal, hot water and salt, so there’s no excuse not to.
- Give your cereal a glow-up. Butter, milk powder, sugar, salt, and a low oven turn plain flakes into something fancy.
That’s a wrap on corn. Next time on Sweet. Savory. Seasonal., the produce will change, the stove will still be crowded, and the puns, sadly, will continue. Shucks, we’ll miss you till then.
Get Recipes Inspired by This Episode:
Sweet Corn Ice Cream Puff with Blueberry Compote
Shrimp and Grits with Corn 5 Ways
Hungry for more? Check out these other sweet (and savory) seasonal dishes:
