I have competed before; watching Chef Richard Rosendale, CMC and his commis, Corey Siegel, prepare for this year's Bocuse d'Or competition online, made me want to jump back in the ring.
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| photos courtesy of Bocuse d'Or USA |
There are hundreds of live cooking competitions around the globe every year; I just needed to find one that was close to home, and that I could squeeze into my work schedule. And, as it often happens, opportunity knocked: the ACF White Mountains Chef of the Year competition based on the ACF's 1-hour category K contemporary competition category. It was not nearly of the magnitude involved with Bocuse d'Or, nor was it approaching the stress levels of the competitions that I have participated in previously.
I was in!
"Sign me up!"
When I agreed to participate, my sole intention was to win; crush the competition!!! Pull out all of my culinary tricks. No holds barred! (Especially after the chef who "took" my old job entered the competition)
My contemporaries in the area all poopoo modernist techniques. My solution: include as many modernist techniques as possible.
Presentation? Make it as contemporary as possible.
I was going to ride into town like Sheriff Bart in 'Blazing Saddles"...people were going to sit up and take notice of me, possibly dislike me at first, but eventually hoist me onto their shoulders in adulation!
Yaaaaaay, ME!
Then something happened while I was working up my formulas for the competition. Something unexpected:
I stopped caring about winning.
I have been a hyper competitive person my entire life, "How could this happen?" I wondered aloud.
Now, don't get me wrong, I will be overjoyed and downright giddy to have have a President's Medallion hung from my neck on Friday night. But this is no longer the end game.
It became about the process. It was cooking for the sake of pure. Cooking. Nothing more. I had a chance to learn more about quinoa, and how it cooked in various liquids, and how seasoning affects the cooking...
I broke down whole salmon, (MANY whole salmon), for the first time in a long time; each time with the goal of being faster, cleaner, more efficient. I became an R&D chef: just how much fish sauce is too much? Should it be added to the sauce hot? Cold? I adopted the Rosendale/Siegel motto:
"Push Yourself"
I had a "program" that was easy. Safe. Easily executed in 60 minutes. Not challenging...SO, I pushed myself, and crammed as many elements into 60 minutes that I could execute (while still building in some "Oh, crud!" time).
I took a page from Chef Rosendale's playbook, and focused on the organization before the competition.
I worked on refining the individual steps needed to actually execute the dish. I consciously thought about each part of my program and what I could do to make each phase easier to execute; taking my cues from the photos above, I packed all of the equipment needed to execute each component in "kits." All of my food mis en place was packed in kits as well...everything completely organized so that there was no searching, or guesswork.
It became about the journey...the destination was a receding horizon. I practiced my recipes individually, and then ran through my entire dish several times...certainty that my dish would come together in 60 minutes was cemented. During the competition I learned from my fellow competitors about some of the nuances of competing that I had forgotten about; seeing three of my contemporaries cook was inspirational both in a "I am going to steal that idea," and a "I wouldn't have done that" kind of way.
I exited the kitchen that day knowing more than I had arrived knowing; I was a better chef than I was the day before.
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