Let me begin my tale from the beginning. Z. and I were picking up some half-and-half from the Market of Choice when we saw fliers advertising the Northwest Cooks competition. I was intrigued because two of my favorite food companies, Umqua Dairy and Market of Choice were partnering together on a venture. There were three categories: appetizer/side dish, entree/main dish, and desert. The recipe needed to utilize Umqua Dairy. 9 finalists would be invited to cook their dish July 7th in Eugene. The grand prize was a choice of 1 of 4 Oregon Weekend Getaway Destinations. I was most excited about the category winner prize: a $250 gift certificate to Market of Choice. I took a flier, not sure if I could come up with anything original to submit because I love dairy but rarely cook or prepare meals with it.
After some time ruminating, I remembered a recipe I had created just a few weeks earlier with the intention of sharing it here on Cheap Not Frugal Eats. I wasn't too excited about submitting it for the competition because the dish was complicated with multiple parts. The deadline for submissions arrived without a new recipe and I was not intending on entering. Z. was out of town, I was having a crummy week, and decided to bite the bullet and submit the recipe I had. What was the worse that could happen? ...Nothing too painful; I could only think of mild and innocuous rejection.
A few weeks later, while in San Francisco, with the recipe submission out of mind, I had a message letting me know that I was picked as a finalist for the Northwest Cooks competition and was invited to cook my recipe in Eugene. You should have seen how Z.'s face glowed with proudness. I thought he was going to burst!
The next few weeks were spent dutifully practicing my recipe and telling everyone I could that I was a finalist in a cooking competition (I was only slightly obnoxious). I made the complete recipe 3 or four times during this period. There would be leftover polenta cakes to practice browning perfectly or sauce to drizzle. I must say, even though I spent hours cleaning the kitchen, all the practice made a difference.
The first time I made the recipe post-finalist notification, I just made it as quickly as I could because I knew there was a two hour time limit in the competition. This is one part I was very nervous about. When I cook, I don't care how long my food takes. After the initial session, I would time myself. I was so anxious about getting everything done in time that I burnt myself multiple times, made giant messes while trying to stir something, or break the polenta cakes because I was in a hurry.
In the competition I would have to double my recipe so I made sure to also practice that. The first time I tried doubling the sauce, I made it wrong! I thought I had my recipe memorized exactly. I forget to double the flour and quadrupled the stock. I learned that you cannot add flour to an already boiling mixture and expect it to thicken. I had a big mess! The sauce was watery with flour chunks.
Turns out, I got my nerves out during my practice sessions. When the competition arrived, I was extremely nervous about everything except the cooking. That, I knew I could handle no problem. It was nice to see all the other finalists were just as nervous as I was!
A perk of being a finalist was that I was offered a free room at the Valley River Inn for Friday. Even though Corvallis is only 60 minutes away, I took advantage of the offer. Z. always takes me on vacation, now I had a chance to take him on a (mini) trip. We made an adventure out of the experience. We drove down to Eugene around lunch time on Friday to enjoy one of our favorite meals: the salad bar at Track Town Pizza. Then, we wandered to several more of our favorite Eugene locations before checking into the hotel.
Not only did my dish have multiple parts but the polenta portion needed to be made ahead and refrigerated. I had made arrangements with the event organizer to use a part of my cooking time to prepare my polenta. While the polenta was cooking, I used the time to chop the onion I would need. I spent 22 minutes preparing the polenta which also happens to have been the average in my practice sessions.
After the successful polenta cooking, I was looking forward to Saturday. Prior to this experience, I had never cooked in a restaurant kitchen and I did not know what to expect. I assumed I would be using a gas stove and that made me nervous as I have very little experience cooking on gas. I was most worried about scorching my polenta (both when making the creamy polenta, and especially when making the creamy polenta cakes).
After a restless night, I enjoyed my complimentary breakfast at the hotel restaurant (I had eggs Benedict, of course). Z. and I hung around until it was my time to check-in and begin cooking. When I checked-in I received a lovely swag basket with kitchen goodies. Thank goodness! I used several of the utensils while cooking. I had no idea a medium-sized mixing bowl with a handle and a spout would make such a great addition to my life. I wanted to strain my sauce and then put it in a squeeze bottle for drizzling. This bowl made that task easier and less messy.
What seemed like such a lonely and spacious kitchen the day before was now jam-packed and bustling. The desert finalists were plating, while the appetizer/side dish finalists were in the middle of cooking. Then the three of us main dish finalists made our entrance. During all of this, the kitchen staff was preparing samples for the event and completing their daily tasks. Every staff member was gracious and extremely helpful. The finalists I chatted with, including myself, were so worried that the real chefs would laugh at us. Each finalists' ingredients were gathered in a basket but there might be a missing ingredient or we might not see a particular dish or utensil, we would ask one of the chefs for assistance when we couldn't find an event person. It was no problem at all.
Space and work stations were at a premium. I snagged some work space that had enough room that I could spread out but it was downwind and around the corner from the range. In my own kitchen and cooking the night before, my work space had always been right across from the range. I was very concerned about burning my food and the extra time I would spend going back and forth. Even when my food is bubbling a mere couple of feet away, I forget it's there. What was I going to do when my pans weren't even with smelling range?
I knew the best thing I could do was recenter myself and slow my brain down. I did this by spending a few minutes selecting all the pots and utensils I would need, carefully arranging my work space, and going through my ingredients.
I felt more clearheaded and finally began going through the motions of cooking my dish. The organizers had done the grocery shopping for us (unless we brought in any pre-approved ingredients) at the Market of Choice. All my ingredients were organic and the produce was beautiful. My recipe calls for turnip greens because that's what I used when I created my dish and loved the flavor the turnip greens added. There were no turnip greens to be had. Instead, I used a bunch of kale with amazing purple stems and dandelion greens. Dandelion greens were the best substitute! The dandelion greens were tender and flavorful, with a hint of pepperiness.
The most stressful time of cooking was getting the dishes ready for the judges. Food styling is not something I intuitively have an eye for (as you can see from the photos in my early posts). I tried doing some research before the competition but could find nothing useful. I had no idea what shape to cut the polenta cakes into. I went with a squarish shape because it would fit on my spatula. My inspiration was using polenta loaf to create a version of my Caramelized Onion, Spinach, and White Bean Pizza and when the chef I was chatting with after the competition heard this, he told me cutting it into a pizza shape would have been an option. So yes, my plate looked amateurish, especially with my sauce drizzled in zig zags across the top but I did the best I knew how.
The judges' table was on a raised platform. We wheeled a cart out that held our plates and served the judges. I get nervous when I have friends over to the apartment for the first time and I feed them. This was terribly nerve-wracking.
The judges tasted everyone's food, I cleaned up my area, and awaited the results. ...I didn't win. I was disappointed but not surprised. I didn't have a chance to taste the main dish winner's food but I have an idea of how tasty her dish might have been because we cooked next to each other at the stove. Her chicken smelled really good while it was cooking. I think one of the keys to her success was Mexican oregano. When she added it to the pan, the smell was fantastic. I am inspired to finally try Mexican oregano and start using it!
And to top everything off, we were having our portraits professionally taken with our food after presenting to the judges. I worried about this. I had been in a hot kitchen for two hours hovering over a gas range. I was also a mess. I had polenta all over my apron and my shirt. I was a big mess!
I came away from the competition with a few bits of wisdom:
- I cook good food. I have a new level of confidence in my abilities and my tastes. My dish was the most different, the most complex, and one of the only meatless recipes (the only meatless main dish). The first question I got from multiple people was, "Are you vegetarian?" I stand more firm in my capabilities in making meals that show off how amazing vegetables and plant-based ingredients can be.
- Looking back, I realize the ways that my recipe was not the best choice for a competition, especially a competition that was aimed at putting together a cook book for home cooks. The average home cook could not make my recipe; it would be overwhelming. Next time, I will take my audience into consideration better. Plus, I lost sight of how extraordinary simple food can be.
- Don't have a recipe that requires you to make something ahead of time. That was a pain and stressful.
- I thought about and memorized the exact order of each step I would take to make my dish. This included mundane tasks like thinking about when to turn the heat on under my pans or when I should add the oil to my pans.
- Lastly, I was reminded again of how if you don't try, you can't be picked as a winner.
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