It sounds like a Quickfire Challenge on "Top Chef": Using a resort-cabin kitchenette and ingredients found at the resort's buffet table, create a satisfying and original dish that's not on the menu.

That was the challenge that David Latt, TV producer and culinary blogger, resolved during his recent stay at the Sundance resort.

Latt (whose credits include an Emmy for "Hill Street Blues" and an Emmy nomination for "Twin Peaks") is married to Michelle Satter, director of the Sundance Filmmakers Lab, so he's been sort of trapped in Provo Canyon for the last month. Not that it's an uncomfortable prison - "While she’s at the resort, all her meals are included, served buffet style," Latt wrote in a guest entry in Mark Bittman's "Bitten" blog for The New York Times. "The food is good but if I want to cook for her there are obstacles."

Latt's solution: Make a soup using the ingredients from Sundance's salad bar: "spinach, corn, scallions, garbanzo beans, carrots, chopped tomatoes and mushrooms." He also worked in some grilled chicken breasts, sour cream, bacon, half and half, corn bread, butter and olive oil, all from the buffet.

"From now on," Latt writes, "whenever I see a salad bar I’ll think of it as a two-fer: salad and soup."

(Photos from David Latt's blog, "Men Who Like to Cook.")

Labels: Sundance