So here I am with my very first Culinary competition medal, Bronze!!! Very proud!!! The day started off fantastic and continued to get better and worse and better... I had some huge things happen to my soup. IE; the time limit was coming to a close before my carrots cooked. We had one burner each and my carrots were the last to be cooked. It takes at least 2 days to get the veggies cooked on those little burners!!!!! We had 2 hours! When trying to puree my uncooked carrots I realize I have to take it off my sign, it will not be done in time, they will not pass the test. So the staff comes over with some little white stickies and covers over the carrot ginger foam part of my sign. I think it is all over as my garnish is mush and I throw some chives down and quickly chop as a replacement, this will have to do. The doors open the tasting begins, I get some fantastic feed back. My soup is the last to be tasted as I drew the highest card. Points for Jr. Chef Mandolyn! But I still think the cold foam gave it that POW that it needed. I was now just playing the tastings game and took myself out of a medal standing in my head. When my name was called I was in shock, truly in shock. Very excited to compete and now my soup alone with out the garnish came in 3rd! My soup is one that is different from the others, not one that is seen often and one that is my own recipe. The rest are roasted veg soups, many with squash and pumpkin. The gold was the squash. The silver went to a corn chowder.
A part of the competition game is selling yourself, selling your product and sell I did! Parsnips are not a favorite of a lot of people. You either love them or hate them. I made some parsnip haters turn in to parsnip lovers that day. I, making comments like I will turn you in to a Parsnip looovvvverrr lovvvverrrrr! As well as letting the yummyness of the soup speak. So keep watching as I prepare for future competitions and events. I am just getting started!!!
