It’s happening. Over the past several months, competitors have been working it out.  Anyone interested in getting one of the coveted placements at World Food Championships is working hard to first win at a qualifying event, taking place all over the country.

Getting qualified is only the beginning. Sure, you’ve gotten yourself a place with a fantastic winning moment at a qualifying event, but will that winning dish be good enough to take the big prize at one of the most intense food competitions in the world?  The time for taking your food to another level has come and it’s a level of competition that requires a lot of forethought and a bit of obsessed, creative brain activity.

Every competitor comes to the WFC game with a plan to create the best food of their lives. From the moment of qualifying until the moment competition begins in Las Vegas, strategic and logistically plotted focus must constantly be ticking in competitors’ minds.  The creative mind goes into overdrive. So many variables, so much strategy to think about; the other competitors taunt your psyche and the logistics of competing in Las Vegas are more than daunting.  Quite frankly, thinking about it all is chock-full of overwhelming!  It can drive you to distraction and set you spiraling down even before the big moment.

The best way to keep it together is to focus. A good friend gave me this little gem and now it is my favorite focus mantra,  “Life by the inch is a cinch, life by the mile is a trial”.  So, take your prep for WFC one step at a time and set yourself up for success.

For me, the focus all begins with the recipe as it is the basis for everything. Within it lays your strategy, timing, flavor and presentation. This is the most important element of your competition and creating a well-developed recipe is your first and most important step in winning at WFC.

For competition at WFC, it’s important to have 3-4 solid recipes within your category.  The parameters of your recipes lie within the rules of each round of your category.  WFC runs a combined score build for the first two recipes, resulting in the first round of eliminations. If you make it past that first round of elimination, you have made it to the Top 10 in your category. You will then need a third recipe using an additional infused ingredient. If you beat-out the top 10 competitors in your category with your third recipe, you are now the category winner (like me, World Recipe Champion!). Next up, category winners prepare for battle at the Final Table.  This is the competition between you and 8 other category winners for all the marbles, yep, thousands of dollars, and title of World Food Champion! For this aspect of the competition, you have a choice.  You can use the same recipe that won you your overall category win or you can present something completely new. I went with my category win recipe.  Now, I’m not sure that was the best choice, I think presenting something new may have been a better strategy… you know…hindsight and all that.

Inch #1: The Recipe

When building your recipes for competition, keep these ideas in mind:

Stay true to your style of cooking-

For me, I stay focused on comfort food; nothing too fancy. Comfort and flavor are where I do well. How about you?

Know your skills-

Depending on the complexity, technique can be a stumble for me in competition.  Although I have some skills, heavy technique is not going to be my focus in a recipe.   I like to get my recipes down on paper way before the competition so that I can practice, practice, practice whatever technique involved in my recipe so I get to my desired result before the competition.

Less is more

In competition, less ingredients yield better results. Be thoughtful about each ingredient that you place in your recipe. Keep it simple and full of flavor. More ingredients can muddle the taste giving your dish have a monotone range of flavor.

Ingredient choices-

When choosing ingredients for competition, keep less popular or controversial food selections off the list as a main ingredient. For example: WFC 2012, I made a cauliflower gratin. I promise it was super tasty, but despite how much my taste testers liked it, some people judging did not like cauliflower and the reality is, it was risky. But, most everyone has a love affair with potatoes. Most likely, I would have scored wayyyy higher if I had made a kick-ass variation of a potato gratin.

Time

In competition, time is not your friend. You must be organized and focused and keep the clock at the forefront. When developing your recipe ask yourself, “How long will this recipe, realistically, take to make?”  That should be a huge consideration in competition. You only have so much time until turn-in. Don’t create a recipe for competition that exceeds 45 minutes. If you do, you risk being eliminated by the buzzer. Believe me, no one thinks they will be the one that goes over the time-limit but sadly, it happens at each competition! Don’t be the stunned, crying, whipping-your-tardy-dish-on-the-ground, competitor.

Judging

Consider that one bite. What will it be like for the judges when they get your dish? If your recipe includes items that can get soggy, melt (like ice cream or whipped cream) or anything that degrades into another state, don’t include it. The judges may not get the taste you wanted them to.

Know flavor

Make the ingredients complement, not compete, for attention. Check out a book called

“The Flavor Bible” by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg- I would lend you mine but, it’s tattered, loved and used by me all the time. It’s my most-used “cookbook”.

There you have it. If you are coming to WFC, take one step at a time. Start with 3-4 great recipes to set yourself on the path to WFC victory! Come back every month to hear more tips, fun stories blended with a bit of tried and true food competition wisdom.