2012 World Recipe Champion
Carmell Childs

Carmell Childs, winner of the World Recipe Championship, has been competing in recipe contests for two years. During that time Childs describes her success rate, with a smile, as having "won many and lost several."

A prolific home cook with mountains of success, Childs was the Utah Recipe Round-up Champion and one of four finalists in the Philadelphia® Cream Cheese "Real Women of Philadelphia" Season 2. As a finalist, Childs travelled to Savannah, Ga., to cook for Paula Deen. During her time as a home cook, Childs has been published in both Seasons 2 and 3 for the Real Women of Philadelphia recipe cookbooks. Additionally, Childs lists wins for the National Rice Association, National Mango recipe contests, 5 Generation Bakers' Cinnamon Swirl Bread and Gorton's® Ortega® Fish Taco Contest, just to name a few.

As the winner of the Spreading Smucker's® Traditions contest, a finalist for Just a Pinch in the Sandwich Category qualifying contest on justapinch.com and then through Del Monte's Crown the Cook contest, Child's technically qualified THREE times for the World Food Championships! In the end, she opted to compete in the World Recipe Championship with her Del Monte win.

At the World Food Championships, Childs prepared her White Chocolate Apricot Sunrises. The Sunrises are puff pastries filled with a white chocolate apricot filling, sprinkled with toffeed pistachios and drizzled with a lemon glaze. The shells were baked in the oven and the filling was simply mixed in a bowl, the pistachios were prepared over the stove-top. As her sponsor, Del Monte, drove the inspiration through its canned apricots.

In Round Two of the World Recipe Championship, Childs prepared her Sweet Cherry Baby Bellas with a tangy cherry dipping sauce. For the bellas, she stuffed colorful baby bell peppers with a sweet and spicy cream cheese mixture that included: onions, bacon and jalapenos. They were then topped with a buttery, nutty panko crumb mixture, baked in the oven and then served with a sauce made from cherry pepper pickle juice and cherry preserves. This appetizer was inspired by her favorite treat: jalapeno poppers.

Through all of her accomplishments though, Childs attributes her competition success to using her time wisely, utilizing a good recipe and having her husband as her sous chef. In advance of the World Food Championships, Childs practiced pastries for weeks in attempts to sharpen her skills. As winner of the World Recipe Championship, Childs took home a check for $10,000.

Learn more about the 2012 World Recipe Championship