1/10th OF A POINT

Everyone is asking me so what was it like, where are the pictures, what did you make? So here we are. First I have to tell you, my camera battery died, and I couldn’t find the charger. (KIDS!) Second I was still a little mad about a situation that happened during our challenge.

But let’s start from the beginning before I get ahead of myself.

We arrived at TCC way before even God was awake I think. We were ready, a little excited, sort of let's get this done, and sort of “what did I get myself into”. All kinds of official looking Chefs came into the room what I was referring to as the “HOT BOX” all day. No air conditioning it seems worked on that side of the building. Some rules were reviewed, judges were introduced, and then a hat was passed with numbers in it. Annette drew 22. OK good and bad. We get to see everyone else sweat it through first and bad we were sitting for hours waiting.

Did I mention they forgot about us? Well they did. We were waiting so long that the officials forgot about teams 20 and 22. UGGHH. Annette and I were set, we knew what we needed to grab for ingredients and we knew our recipes and menu inside and out and our equipment was situated.

Fajita soup with funky strips

                                             Citrus-garlic beef with sauce,                                gingered carrots, potato croquettes

IT WAS HOT! Like sauna hot. My hair still has not recuperated from the amount of sweat it went through in that toque. We really were on a roll and just went with the flow. We were even for a minute there ahead of ourselves, until I went to go grill the steak. Can we say UH OH? Let me put to you UH OH was not what I was really saying when I found out that the grills were turned off, and like no gas was even coming out to re-light them up. My stomach is on the floor as I am trying to fry up the potato croquettes and spring roll strips. Annette was so cool, she grabbed the steak, and slapped it into a frying pan, and it cooked, mmm... ok. Our plating was neat, we worked clean, our safety and sanitation was up to snuff. We did our best. Beans were a little crunchy in the soup since they were dried to begin with, but we will overlook that since there was no time to do a soaking.

Burnin my love Chocolate Torte

We were called to where the plating was presented. All of the judges had something to say. About the par list, about this dish over this dish, presentations, taste. In the meantime Annette and I are like dying a slow death, we are so thirsty and hot and sweaty and wondering where did two hours go so quickly? Then one of the judges asked who made the potato croquettes and they said it was a nice, different… I really don’t remember the exact wording because I was just thrilled they mentioned them. Maybe Annette might remember. And then I knew were going to be ok, we may not have won a place, but we did pretty good for first year students in our second official cooking class.

I celebrated with a Beer

Annette celebrated with an Appletini

We were finally sent over to the theater classroom at the roper building and in to air condition for the presentation of the awards. Third Place – Shelina Gunn and Jessica Bunch of TCC… YEAH!!! Second Place - Joshua Wilson and Shay Acker of TCC… YEAH and First Place - Kathleen Ortiz and Tammy Lessard of TCC… SUPER DUPER YEAH. It turned out that all eight teams from TCC filled the first eight spots in positioning and Culinary Institute of Virginia, followed suit. Really I was thrilled when Annette and I missed third place by 1/10th of a point. But oh the rush and oh the thrill of just being part of this event was worth all the worry, dreading, and sweat.

WATCH OUT NEXT YEAR 2 Hot MaMa’s will be there in the winners circle.