Winner Winner Chicken Dinner.
Photo courtesy of
Mike “The Truth” Jackson
What. A. Day!
Today I got to participate in my first ever cooking competition. I joined a host of other participants for Juneteenth Houston’s first Red Foods tasting challenge in honor of Celebrating Freedom.
The challenge was to make a sweet or savory dish that must have a central red ingredient and connect to the theme of freedom. While planning for this event, I discovered the hibiscus is a botanical that came over with the enslaved from the motherland, so it made for a natual choice when deciding on a red ingredient that wasn’t your typical.
Final prototype before the big show.
After going over idea after idea, I finally settled on what I’d eventually call June’s Jubilee (thanks T Nicole). When I think of celebration, I think of champagne! So June’s Jubilee natually I’d make my champagne cake, and for the red I’d add a raspberry and hibiscus coulis topped with a raspberry hibiscus champagne buttercream and sprinkled with fresh fruit caviar.
It took ya girl FOUR attempts to finally get the molecular gastronomy down to make (almost) perfect raspberry and strawberry spheres.
Thank you to my family and friends (Spades, HBLI, lifelong hittas) who showed up to support. To those who contacted me at the last minute with extra tickets so they wouldn’t go unused, the taste testers of #LeCarterBleu’s test kitchen, but last and certainly not least I MUST thank my cousin, right hand (wo)man, friend, champion of others, Denise (and her daughter) for always coming through to help me shine!
Y’all I had to teach my cooking class at Williams today and wouldn’t get to the competition in time to setup. Denise said, “Say less.”. After helping me until midnight last night, she went into work eeeaaarrrly so she could get to the venue in time to setup for me!
Since I’m the regular cooking class demo chef at Williams Sonoma Highland Village, I ran my Sunday morning cooking class at 11am (this was actually the setup time for the competition). I made the fastest fritattas known to mankind! I had to get out of there. I even left some samples off my June’s Jubilee for my colleagues.
My goal was to get to the venue by 12:30. I was making good timing y’all! It was 12:17, and I was leaving Williams! I just may make it! As I was leaving realized that I’d locked my keys in my rental car (I’d left the car and AC on to make sure the June Jubilee didn’t melt away in this Houston heat). After a mini panic attack and the slowest response from Avis ever I made it to Emancipation Park right around 12:37PM. It was hot. Flies were swarming. It was like a good ole fashion cookout.
It was all worth the late nights and early morning and moving at warp speeds because YA GIRL TOOK FIRST PLACE! I won yall.
