As promised: the Saga of my First Chef Competition- Long [View All]

[Tsiyu]

(Thank you AzDemDist6 :loveya: )


So I am watching the ten o'clock news one Saturday night and I keep seeing these ads for a Pastry chef competition. I get close to the little black and white TV so I can read the names of the restaurants competing. It might be fun to attend if I like the restaurants. All of a sudden my heart leaps into my throat.

Our restaurant is listed! "WHAT!!!!!!!!?????????!!!!!! I'm the freakin' pastry chef and nobody told me?"

I WAS headed to bed but instead I leap out of the chair and grab all my cookbooks, grumbling "What the hell is wrong with him (the EC)? Why didn't he tell me? What am I going to make? I'm going to fail miserably!!!!"


I decide I will make truffles if I have any say in what to make.

The next morning is Sunday Brunch. I get there early and corner the executive chef over by the coffee machines.

"So I'm watching TV last night..." I begin, telling him about seeing the ad.

"Wow," he says. "We should go to that, huh?"

"Uh. We're IN it!" I practically scream back.

"Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you." Nice....

SO turns out he wants truffles too. The sous chef gives us an idea for something different - zapotle - a chocolate fruit he has eaten in Mexico.

I concoct a recipe (when I find it I'll share it - but I think its written down in a book I loaned to a friend when making Christmas cookies cuz it's not here right now.) My secret ingredient, besides the zapotle, is Godiva liqueur. Oh yeah...

For days I make truffles, handrolling them and dipping some in crushed pistachio, some in shaved white chocolate, some in cocoa. The staff will NOT leave them alone.

They joke with me about the addictive qualities of my truffles. "These are better than sex!" says one server. They all decide they want to get the whole mountain addicted and then they can start offshoot truffle rehab programs. They are trying to butter me up as they steal the truffles. I finally run everybody off and get the required 650 made (and hermetically sealed!). It is 3:00 am the night before the competition before I am done.


The next day, Sunday Brunch again. I drag myself into the restaurant and in between making biscuits, etc for brunch I take a huge bar of Callebaut dark chocolate and use melted white chocolate to pipe our logo on it.

The EC wants me to go to the competition. "I brought you a clean chef coat" he says when I complain that my own is filthy.

"I just want to go home and go to bed and forget about truffles." I am sick of truffles. A small emergency arises and I end up "having" to stay back at the restaurant. I finish my stuff, go home and fall into bed.

I awake hours later and the news is on again. Bleary-eyed, I wonder how we did. But we are "hillbillies" and we were up against very, very well-known, stiff, big city culinary competition. I have no illusions.

Here comes the report about it on the news(the station was a sponsor.) I see my EC wandering around in the group shots and a shot of our display (with my big chocolate bar front and center - great for the restaurant, I'm thinking) and then the announcer says that the winner was - our restaurant! I am in m y skivvies jumping up and down like crazy and when I grab the phone I find lots of congratulations already on it. I can't believe it.

Now, Best of Show went to one of the big restaurant sponsors, but we won People's Choice and Best Presentation, so we only won two of the three awards but I am beside myself.

So that is the story of bhg's one and only chef competition.

I would love to hear your stories too!

It's really good to be back on DU, btw.

Happy cooking!