My First Culinary Competition
I never thought I would ever be good enough to do it alone... but I underestimated myself. I had gone through three years of culinary arts thinking I could never be good enough to compete in the competitions. Everyone supported me: my teachers, my friends, and most of all, my parents. It took three years of culinary arts, iron chef, and convincing from everyone around me for me to be confident enough to participate in a competition and realize I had a true talent.
Iron chef is the entire reason I initially thought about participating in a competition.
Junior year, I had the best team I could ask for. Out of seven members, I ended up being the only girl and the guys named our team “The Naked Chefs”. We made it all the way to the finale and we were extremely nervous, but we pulled through and won the finale with outstanding points. Over the summer, I couldn’t stop thinking about how it felt to compete where you either lose or win and if you lost, you lost it all. It all started the beginning of the senior year as I was making my annual visits to Mr. Micco and Mrs. Morgan’s classrooms.. Mrs. Morgan is a talker; we could talk about anything for hours – we’ve done it before. We were talking about how our summers went when she randomly asked me about competitions: Morgan: “So are you going to do any competitions this year?” Me: “I was thinking about it, but I’m not sure if I’m ready. I just get so nervous, you know.” Morgan: “I know, but Aaron and Markeisha didn’t just start out in nationals for their first competition. You have to start out small and work your way up.” Me: “Oh, okay.” Morgan: “There’s the chili competition coming up, I think you’d be good at it.” Me: “Okay, I’ll think about it.” So, I thought about it, thought of a recipe, and signed up to compete alone. The only part I forgot was my team name. Of course, crazy me let Micco and Mrs. Morgan choose it. I was in the café after school preparing food for the football dinner, and Micco and Mrs. Morgan were in Micco’s office. His best trait has to be yelling. Micco: “KELLIE!!!!!!!!!!!” Me: “What?” Mrs. Morgan: “Come here.” So I ran in there. Mrs. Morgan: “You need a name.” Me: “What?” Micco: “For the competition.” Me: “Oh, okay.” Mrs. Morgan: “Aren’t you making spicy chili?” Me: “Yes.” Micco: (whispering) “Feelin’ hot hot hot” Mrs. Morgan: “That’s it!!” I officially had a team name, and as the competition grew closer, I grew nervous. I never had a chance to practice; eventually, I practiced once . A week went by and I repacked everything I had about five times because I was nervous and figured I would forget something or lose because I hadn’t practiced. The day came for the competition, and I felt so nervous (Describe feeling nervous);I couldn’t think straight. We left the house early and ate breakfast at Burger King before arriving at Wilson Central. I sat in the car for a few minutes before getting out to go inside. When we unpacked the car, …show more content…
Halfway through, I heard the team next to me talking to the judges about a problem:; their meat would not be consumable by the end of the hour. The judges proceeded to count off points on their score sheet and a little part of me got excited; however, I still had two teams to defeat. Once the hour had finished and the judges finished their tastings, they let family members walk around and try the entries. Everyone looked at my team name and almost all of them sang the song and hesitated to try my chili, but everyone who tried it came back for more; Micco came back a dozen times. I felt so happy until they had us sit down and wait for the scores to be calculated; that had to be the longest fifteen minutes of my life. The judges came back and everyone crowded around them. They started announcing the winners at 3 rd place. When they didn’t say my name for 3 rd or 2 nd place, I felt discouraged; until I accidentally glanced at the paper with the winners on it. I became so excited I couldn’t hide
I never thought I would ever be good enough to do it alone... but I underestimated myself. I had gone through three years of culinary arts thinking I could never be good enough to compete in the competitions. Everyone supported me: my teachers, my friends, and most of all, my parents. It took three years of culinary arts, iron chef, and convincing from everyone around me for me to be confident enough to participate in a competition and realize I had a true talent.
Iron chef is the entire reason I initially thought about participating in a competition.
Junior year, I had the best team I could ask for. Out of seven members, I ended up being the only girl and the guys named our team “The Naked Chefs”. We made it all the way to the finale and we were extremely nervous, but we pulled through and won the finale with outstanding points. Over the summer, I couldn’t stop thinking about how it felt to compete where you either lose or win and if you lost, you lost it all. It all started the beginning of the senior year as I was making my annual visits to Mr. Micco and Mrs. Morgan’s classrooms.. Mrs. Morgan is a talker; we could talk about anything for hours – we’ve done it before. We were talking about how our summers went when she randomly asked me about competitions: Morgan: “So are you going to do any competitions this year?” Me: “I was thinking about it, but I’m not sure if I’m ready. I just get so nervous, you know.” Morgan: “I know, but Aaron and Markeisha didn’t just start out in nationals for their first competition. You have to start out small and work your way up.” Me: “Oh, okay.” Morgan: “There’s the chili competition coming up, I think you’d be good at it.” Me: “Okay, I’ll think about it.” So, I thought about it, thought of a recipe, and signed up to compete alone. The only part I forgot was my team name. Of course, crazy me let Micco and Mrs. Morgan choose it. I was in the café after school preparing food for the football dinner, and Micco and Mrs. Morgan were in Micco’s office. His best trait has to be yelling. Micco: “KELLIE!!!!!!!!!!!” Me: “What?” Mrs. Morgan: “Come here.” So I ran in there. Mrs. Morgan: “You need a name.” Me: “What?” Micco: “For the competition.” Me: “Oh, okay.” Mrs. Morgan: “Aren’t you making spicy chili?” Me: “Yes.” Micco: (whispering) “Feelin’ hot hot hot” Mrs. Morgan: “That’s it!!” I officially had a team name, and as the competition grew closer, I grew nervous. I never had a chance to practice; eventually, I practiced once . A week went by and I repacked everything I had about five times because I was nervous and figured I would forget something or lose because I hadn’t practiced. The day came for the competition, and I felt so nervous (Describe feeling nervous);I couldn’t think straight. We left the house early and ate breakfast at Burger King before arriving at Wilson Central. I sat in the car for a few minutes before getting out to go inside. When we unpacked the car, …show more content…
Halfway through, I heard the team next to me talking to the judges about a problem:; their meat would not be consumable by the end of the hour. The judges proceeded to count off points on their score sheet and a little part of me got excited; however, I still had two teams to defeat. Once the hour had finished and the judges finished their tastings, they let family members walk around and try the entries. Everyone looked at my team name and almost all of them sang the song and hesitated to try my chili, but everyone who tried it came back for more; Micco came back a dozen times. I felt so happy until they had us sit down and wait for the scores to be calculated; that had to be the longest fifteen minutes of my life. The judges came back and everyone crowded around them. They started announcing the winners at 3 rd place. When they didn’t say my name for 3 rd or 2 nd place, I felt discouraged; until I accidentally glanced at the paper with the winners on it. I became so excited I couldn’t hide