Cooking competitions can bring out the best and worst in their participants. I should know. I’ve been competing in cook-offs for longer than I care to admit. My beloved hobby has even outlasted my marriage. I’m somewhat of a celebrity in my hometown of Augustin, Connecticut, thanks to my national cooking titles. People stop me at the grocery store to sift through my shopping cart and see what I’m preparing for dinner. Don’t get me wrong. Even though recipe invention is my obsession, I do have other interests and talents. I work at my father’s hooked rug store. I sell pickles at the farmer’s market. I garden and I work at fending off suggestions my social life is as flat as an unfilled crepe.

Back to competitive cooking and how recipe preparation can go from success to failure as quickly as a deflated spinach soufflé. If the amateur chefs can embrace the heat in the kitchen and produce their best recipe a grand prize is within their grasp. On the flip side, I’ve witnessed the cream of home cooks lose their cool under the pressure to assemble their best dish for the judges in an uncomfortably limited amount of time. The familiar components of a recipe, as well as the competition itself, may suddenly be second-guessed, and that’s never an easy thing to swallow. All the time spent practicing a recipe for a contest can be for naught if the stove is electric not gas or the butter is salted not unsalted. Tension levels can rise higher than the price of saffron.

That being said, cooking competitions are my happy place. I’m well versed in combining ingredients to achieve a balanced result of salty, sweet, savory and tart. I had been awarded huge cash prizes, trips, appliances, food stuffs, you name it, for keeping my proteins moist and juicy, my vegetables al dente and my sauces adventurous with a modern twist.

Competing in the OrgaNicks Cook-off seemed like just another morning spent doing what I love. I had a few hiccups as I proceeded through the steps of my recipe but nothing I couldn’t recover from. I’ve been labeled anxious and a perfectionist so the fact my recipe would end up anything but my best effort was a given. I was well on my way to another victory. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the result.

I didn’t see any of this coming as I sifted, diced, sautéed and garnished. My eye was on the prize as usual. The finals of the cook-off pitted me against contestants from all corners of the United States. Everyone brought their own style to the kitchen and I relished beating them all. I did sense things might be a bit off when one contestant caused a scene by becoming so agitated he burned himself on his hot skillet. Another cook seemed fully invested in razzing his fellow finalists instead of producing his finest meal. My stiffest competition came from a veteran contester I had competed against and lost to in the past. Her coolness toward me ignited my desire to knock her off her pedestal, which I could do as long as I didn’t let distractions lessen my focus.

When contest time expired I had produced a pork tenderloin masterpiece I knew would wow the judges. It was just a matter of me staying calm while the part of the contest I had no control over took place. Admittedly out of my comfort zone during the taste-testing, all I could do was observe and will the celebrity chef judges to choose me as the winner. For some odd reason I was more nervous than usual, an omen perhaps, as I look back.

My Chutney Glazed and Farro Stuffed Pork Tenderloin went to the judging panel. I watched as the first chef took a bite and promptly dropped dead. Not the outcome I was imagining. Instead of being at the top of the winner’s list I found myself at the top of the murder suspect list. With my world more topsy-turvy than a pineapple upside down cake will I be able to boil down the clues to the murderer’s identity before my goose is cooked?

You can read more about Sherry in Expiration Date, the first book in the NEW “Cook-off” mystery series.

After a short-lived marriage, Sherry Frazzelle is living single life to the fullest in her little Connecticut town, accompanied by her Jack Russell terrier, Chutney. Her new passion is competitive cooking—but it turns out that murder is the surprise ingredient.

With contestants from Maine to California and a ten-thousand-dollar prize at stake, Sherry’s latest competition, hosted by the CEO of an organic food company, is sure to be heated. But she’s more than ready to step up to the stove. After all, she did win the award for Most Creative Cupcake back in high-school. Today, she’s hoping her flavorful pork tenderloin will sway the judges. Instead, it seems someone’s decided to slay one of the judges.

After Chef Birns falls face first into the Seafood Flatbread Pizza, Sherry’s dish is deemed suspicious. Now she’ll have to stir through a stew of rule-breaking, corruption, and gossip to get herself off the chopping block, and find out who turned this food fight fatal.

Includes Recipes from Sherry’s Kitchen!

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Meet the author
I am a wife, mother of three, accomplished cooking contester and a recent empty nester. I taught computer education and Lego Robotics for over ten years prior to pursuing writing. All the way I have been handsomely rewarded for my recipe innovation over the last twenty-plus years. Among the many prizes I have won are a full kitchen of major appliances, six-figure top cash prizes and four trips to Disney World. I have also won the grand prize in a national writing contest for my ‘foodie’ poem “Ode to Pork Passion.” Combining my beloved cooking contesting with my enthusiasm for writing was inevitable.

My author website can be found at devonpdelaney.com.

All comments are welcomed.