One of the dishes that will be judged tonight in the Mason Dixon Master Chef Competition will be Grilled Portabella mushroom with zesty Garden Ratatouille with a Three Cheese Fondue. 

To make ratatouille first get your mise en place ready (all your ingredients ready).  To do this cut the following vegetables to a medium dice- 1 medium sized eggplant, 1 pound of zucchini, 1 onion, 2 bell peppers, (some books suggest adding mushrooms, add a few chefs I know add squash into the mix but it's note traditionally added).  Mince or finely chop 3 cloves of garlic.  Then peel, seed, and slice 4 plum tomatoes at a medium dice.  Have a olive oil, vegetable stock (optional), chopped herbs like parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, savory, chervil (note you do not need to add all these herbs, these are just some suggestions on herbs to use).  Some recipes also suggest adding 2 Tbsp of tomato paste. 

Next the chef must decide how they want to cook the ratatouille as there are many ways suggested on how to cook it.  Some recipes suggest cooking all the ingredients in a pot together, some suggest cooking different ingredients at different times and combining them in the end, and other cookbooks suggest roasting all the vegetables together in the oven.

Cooking in a pot
Begin by adding 1/2 c olive oil to large pot and heat at medium heat.  When the oil is warm add onions and saute until translucent.  (If adding tomato paste add during this step)  Next add garlic, then peppers, then eggplant, then zucchini, (mushrooms), then tomatoes (cook each vegetable until it begins to soften before adding the next.)  Turn stove to low heat and add 1/4 c vegetable stock (the goal is to moisten the veggies, not make them soupy).  Stew the vegetables, season with salt, pepper, and herbs.  And serve.  You may wish to cook each individual ingredient separately so each ingredient retains its individual flavor, but this will make for a lot of dishes.

Cooking in the Oven
Toss onions, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and zucchini in about 1/2 c olive oil, season with fresh herbs and bake on a sheet pan at 350 degrees for about 90 minutes (or until water in tomatoes has evaporated out)  and stir it about every 30 minutes for even cooking.  Next in blender combine basil, garlic, and 1/2 c olive oil in blender, and then stir it in with the ratatouille mixture. 

Options to add some people also like adding pitted olives and/or capers.

Ratatouille comes from the Provencal region of France.  And was also the featured dish in the movie Ratatouille by Disney/Pixar in 2007.  In the movie Chef Thomas Keller designed the ratatouille for the Grand Finale dish, in which instead of dicing the ingredients they were thinly shaved on a mandolin and baked in olive oil (think of it looking a bit like au gratin potatoes with vegetable instead). 

One book suggests using Chinese eggplants or Japanese eggplants if you feel that the eggplant is leaving a 'prickly' taste in your mouth. 

If I was in this competition and had choices of cheeses for the three cheese fondue to serve with this dish I would probably base the cheeses on the region of the dish.  I'm thinking I would try it making the fondue with goat, Boursin (yeah I know it's from Normandy), and Brie.  I would grill the portabellas, and cook the ratatouille similar to the au gratin style in Ratatouille the movie.  To serve I would lay the portabella on the center of the plate, use a round cutter and cut the ratatouille to fit evenly over top the mushroom, top with a dab of fondue, and a brush stroke of fondue across the bottom of the plate and a sprig of rosemary going through the center of the ratatouille holding it to the mushroom.  It my also need a dab of fondue under the mushroom to help hold it into place.

For the wine I would consider a strong, bold wine like a cabernet sauvignon, merlot, or zinfandel.  On a warmer day I would opt out and go with a dry rose (Rose from Francis Ford Coppola Presents was good, Sofia Rose made of Pinot Noir grapes), drink something lighter for a sunnier day.