AJ Willingham’s lemon olive oil cake took home the golden ticket this year at the Texas Food Championship.
Willingham, baking/pastry major who competed for the first time, practiced by making a lemon olive oil cake with lemon curd, pistachio mascarpone cream topped with a pistachio crumble, all of which sits on top of a blueberry compote.
According to Willingham, since this was her first time entering any baking competition her biggest challenge was just being in an unfamiliar setting. “Just being there and doing it in a different setting than where I’ve been practicing,” Willingham explained of the change.
The Texas Food Championship is where professional chefs, home cooks, and culinary students go head-to-head in a 90-minute “Iron Chef”-style competition.
This year it was held on Sept. 25-27 at Water’s Edge Park. Five teams from Del Mar College’s Culinary Arts and Baking/Pastry program competed, with Willingham advancing to the World Food Championship.
“There can only be one winner,” said Bryan Carrizales, the Department of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management instructor. Carrizales coached both students who participated in the baking/pastry competition and helped them fine tune their recipes to perfection. Both students made a dessert with five components with only two weeks in advance to prepare.
“My plate focuses on the tartness of all my fruits mixing with the almonds. It’s like a nice nutty flavor combined with a nice lightness,” said Annie Rodriguez, one of the competitors for the baking/pastry portion of the competition. Rodriguez chose to go with a brown butter peach financer with a blackberry coulis, topped with a lemon mascarpone cream for her pastry.
It took both students one hour, 29 minutes, and 39 seconds to bake and plate their desserts, just barely beating the 90-minute time limit for the competition. The World Food Championship takes place in Indianapolis this October.
