I have been so darn busy!

School has been crazy busy and on top of that I have been involved in two culinary competitions. Finding the time to sit down and jot down my thoughts was free time I did not have. School consisted of writing papers, writing business plans, taking midterms and other test. The most time sucking job was preparing for the competitions.

The first Competition was more of a fund raising event that has "friendly' competition between its members and some outsiders. I entered a Sauerbraten Bison, Carrot, Parsnips and Potato Cakes with a Wine and Bacon Braised Red Cabbage. I received a very good positive response by the attendees, and pretty much had a continuous line of customers the entire time we were there. Received some tremendous feedback and had many repeat customers. The best part was introducing Bison as an alternative "red meat" and the surprised look on peoples faces when they ate it. They could not believe the wonderful taste or the tenderness of this meat. But alas, I was no match for the winning dish, a Chicken Stir-Fry with the plain white rice. Oh well.

The second competition was more challenging. The four teams consisted of three students and one mentor chef. We worked with a mentor chef, who is one of the most congenial and patient men on earth. He gave the team a free reign on what we wanted to cook and how we wanted to prepare it. He just would step in to tweak the recipe and give us his blessing. I really learned a lot from him about how to finish a dish in both taste and presentation. I think I have changed for the better because of this. This was a great learning experience for all of us. Although this competition was not as stringent as the ACF competitions, we did have rules to follow and had to complete the dish in exactly one hour. On the dot!

The judges of this competition are respected in the culinary world and were also very respectfully to us. I appreciated this. They could of really picked us apart, but this was not the time for it or in the spirit of the event. When a you really want to know what a judge really thinks you need to watch their actions as well as listen to their words. Their comments about our dish were cordial, as they were with the other contestants. But, the body language was remarkable. Now I am not going to give up my secrets on body language, but the reactions were good, real good. I knew the results from this competition were going to bring much pleasure to our team. At this point I did not know if we were going to win, but I knew we did well.

And we did do well, we won! And we had to much fun doing it!