It’s about two months until the World Food Championships in Las Vegas.  Like any other competitive event, there’s training involved.  That may sound quirky for a culinary or cooking competition, but there’s more to this event than just firing up your grill and smackin’ down some good eats!

Over the next few weeks, I’m gonna share with you my training schedule…or how I’m getting ready for this competition.  My thinking is that we all win if we go in prepared and ready and loaded with the right preparation.

This is my second year of competition. Last year I was in the Sandwich category having qualified for winning the 2012 Grilled Cheese Academy contest. I had no idea what I was getting into when I did WFC last year, and now with that experience, I’m better able to share some of my thoughts.  It’s about two months from the big four-day event, so here’s what you might want to be doing!

• Get your travel plans lined up. Whether you’re heading to Vegas by wagon train, Harley, airplane, boat, bicycle or whatever, you need to get those reservations and plans made and get there by November 6, 2013 because we all have to be registered on that day!
• Where you gonna stay?  There are lots of options, but rooms fill up fast, so whether you’re gonna pitch a tent or stay in one of the hotels, make those reservations.  The WFC website has all this information!
• Download and read carefully your Competitor Packet. Go through it with a fine-toothed comb, once, twice, even three times. It’s amazing what you’ll miss the first go round; there’s a lot of information to digest and get right.
• Start thinking about what you’re going to make—yes, your dish(es). I’m competing in the ‘Recipe’ category, and we’ll have two ‘builds’, a ‘signature’ build and a ‘structured’ build. You can start working on your ‘signature’ build now!  It’s what you’re going to showcase for that first turn in.  The structured build will be different—the folks at WFC are gonna call the shots on this dish.  So, what’s happening in your category?
• Open a file. Yeah, I’m talking the old-fashioned type paper file folder & one with a nice gusset pocket for growing, and keep everything in one place—your reservation information, payment information, competitor packet, etc.  You’ll take this with you when you travel.  Once you get to Las Vegas with all the excitement, you don’t need to be like a chicken with your head cut off looking for things!
• Put yourself on cruise control and know that you’ll be devoting some part of most every day for these next two months to this competition. Download the Rocky theme song and blast it in your kitchen. Get your juices flowing because there is a lot at stake here and just KNOW that your competition probably is working harder than you!  Never, never underestimate anyone! You are in with the big dogs of cooking competitions and the folks who come to Vegas come to WIN!

Read more at http://www.allyskitchen.com/.