FSR magazine April 2018

COMPETITIONS
Chef Lance Nitahara, a lecturing
instructor at the Culinary Institute
of America, shares Smith’s sentiment.
As a frequent competitor in American
Culinary Federation (ACF) competitions
over the last decade—as well as
a mentor for students preparing for
competitions through organizations
like ProStart and SkillsUSA—Nitahara
sees competitions as vital to a young
chef ’s education.
“I believe that everyone should compete
at least once,” he says. “It wasn’t an
experience that I necessarily wanted to
have until I actually had it, but it really
opened things up for me.”
His experience as a competitor has
kept him organized and his technical
skills sharp, Nitahara says. “When
I work with students who compete,
oftentimes there is only one gold and
only one silver. [When] they aren’t successful,
I see them really beat themselves
up about it. I tell them that the
competitions that I’ve learned the
most from are the ones that I didn’t
win.” Reflection in those instances, he
argues, helps chefs grow and learn.
Chef Philip Tessier, who won the silver
medal at the international Bocuse
d’Or competition in 2015 and coached
Team USA to gold in 2017, appreciates
his competition experience for the
chance it was to build a diverse network
of professionals in his field, as
well as push him to enhance his skills.
“When you’re in a professional restaurant,
you’re working at the stove,
you’re constantly refining your skills
and you’re working, ideally, amongst a
great team, but it’s one team, one chef,
that you’re working under. With the
Bocuse d’Or, I saw the opportunity to
work with multiple chefs across the
country. Why would I not want to be
in the center of this opportunity?” he
says.
To inspire other young chefs to
embark on such a unique opportunity
as representing the USA on a
national stage at Bocuse d’Or, Tessier
has written a book, Chasing Bocuse:
America’s Journey to the Culinary World
Stage, about his experiences with the
competition as a chef and coach. “Competing
in this competition has been
life-changing and eye-opening in so
many ways,” Tessier says. “The more
that young chefs begin to understand
the opportunity that competitions
have to enrich and focus their training
and create opportunity and exposure
to other chefs in different realms
across the world, [the better it is for
the industry.]”
Hard-won thrills
On top of personal growth opportunities,
participants also enjoy the notoriety
that competitions can bring. “From
my perspective now, having done the
competitions and having my own
businesses, it certainly has given me
a boost of credibility throughout the
industry, but it has also given me a
boost economically because people
want you to come and speak about
these things,” says Gavin Kaysen, chef
and owner of Minneapolis restaurants
Spoon and Stable and Bellecour, who
has competed in national and international
contests, including Bocuse d’Or,
where he has served as coach for Team
USA and now serves as VP of the board
of directors for ment’or, formerly The
Bocuse d’Or USA Foundation.
“Absolutely, being involved in barbecue
contests has helped our restaurants,”
says Melissa Cookston of
Memphis Barbecue Co. in Mississippi,
Georgia, and North Carolina and
STEAK in Mississippi. She has competed
in hundreds of barbecue competitions
for more than 20 years. “The
acclaim you can generate by winning
a ‘major’ is something you physically
can’t buy. It’s not something you can
plan on, but if you can make it happen
it’s an awesome thing,” Cookston
says. She would know; she’s been the
World Championship Barbecue Cooking
Contest’s grand champion two
times and the whole-hog champion
five times. What drives her to compete?
Beyond the thrill of the fight,
Cookston notes that it is the memories
made while cooking a hog for 24
hours that keep her coming back for
Path to the Podium
Winners offer advice to newbie
competitors.
OVER-PREPARE
“Because the minute you step
into a new environment, anything
can happen.”
— REBECKA EVANS, 2017 BACON
WORLD CHAMPION AT WFC
BE TRUE TO YOURSELF
“I always ask, ‘Would you cook
this dish for me if I came into your
restaurant?’ Typically, the answer
is ‘no.’ Then why are you going to
do it for a competition?”
— KAYSEN
FOCUS ON THE FLAVOR
“People win these competitions
because their food tastes great.
Obviously, the presentation and
the technique have to be spot
on, but you’ll see plates come
through and you’ll get excited
about it, then realize that it lacks
the substance beneath. Taste
your food over and over again.”
— TESSIER
FEEDBACK IS KEY
“There are some chefs that go
into competition and they are
very prideful about their food,
which sometimes is a good thing,
but most of the time it is not
[because] they won’t ask for a
critique or opinions from others
from the outside. Be open to
positive criticism; that is the best
way to evolve your food.”
— NITAHARA
LEARN FROM MISTAKES
“You know how I learned to
become a good whole hog cook?
By getting my butt kicked, then
going over what was good and
bad about that particular hog,
and then trying to fix the bad
things.” — COOKSTON
FOODNEWSFEED.COM APRIL 2018 41