I am an avid pastry competitor. My passion and dedication landed me a spot on the Sullivan University Olympic Pastry Team, where I had the opportunity to compete with three fellow students in the 2012 IKA Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany as a professional. I received a diploma at this competition, and my dream is to return to a future Culinary Olympics and win gold. Since returning from the IKA Olympics, I have competed in many American Culinary Federation-sanctioned competitions, including the 2013 ACF National Student Chef of the Year Competition in Las Vegas, Nevada where I received a professional silver medal.
2013 ACF Student Chef of the Year Regional and National Competitions
​​
These two Student Chef of the Year Competitions occured in 2013 in Louisville, Kentucky, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Each time, I competed against three other student chefs. Winning the regional competition qualified me for the national competition. I received second place and a professional silver medal in the national competition.
Other ACF-sanctioned Competitions
​​
Here are some photos from other competitions I have entered.
IKA Culinary Olympics 2012
​​
This is my entry in the 2012 IKA Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany. I entered in a professional competition as a student at Sullivan University in Louisville, Kentucky. I received a diploma at the competition. I competed with five unique petit fours and a chocolate showpiece.
Competition Work
This is my entry in the 2012 IKA Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany.
Dark chocolate tiles layered with coffee and orange buttercreams. Garnished with gumpaste decorations.
Bakewell barquette garnished with fondant and royal icing motif.
Cherry-Pistachio Nougatine with Chocolate Garnish
Brandy snap cookie with apricot and marzipan; garnished with fleur-de-lis cocoa painting
Raspberry gelee garnished with royal icing and white chocolate
I made the pieces I displayed my petit fours out of pastillage. After arriving in Germany, I piped royal icing between the layers.
As with everything else displayed in my Olympic piece, I handmade these fleur-de-lis cocoa paintings with a special pen with edible ink.
I love stringwork, and for my Olympic display, I tried to incorporate many different methods of royal icing.
Chocolate leaves. For my chocolate showpiece, I airbrushed these in colored cocoa butter
This unique flower was made with white chocolate.
I incorporated many different methods of chocolate work into my required showpiece for display.
White Chocolate with Royal Icing Stringwork
This is the dish with which I won the ACF Southeast Regional Student Chef of the Year title in March 2013. It is a frangipan tart with dark chocolate and orange ganache, bourbon ice cream, a deep fried crepe filled with chocolate hazelnut and bourbon pastry cream, and garnished with raspberries and chocolate ganache.
As part of the two hour competition, I plated two hot desserts and two cold desserts. I had to incorporate a specific list of ingredients as part of the competition. My hot dessert consisted of a mixed fruit strudel with a Grand Marnier egg white souffle and bourbon ice cream.
My cold dessert consisted of a raspberry-mango chocolate mousse and raspberry mint sorbet. I garnished the plate with mango brunoise and a tempered chocolate flower and butterfly. I incorporated many different chocolate techiniques into this dish.
Working in the kitchen
Making Chocolate Flowers as part of one of my plated desserts for the ACF Student Chef of the Year National Competition
Plating my hot and cold desserts for the national competition.
Competed with this dessert in 2013 ACF sanctioned Competition.
Competed with this dessert in an ACF-sanctioned Competition in 2014.
Chocolate showpiece in Cincinnati, Ohio, in March of 2012. I received a student gold medal.
This was my first pastry competition.
