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Secret Ingredients ... |
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Lightning fast prep work ... |
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Judging hijinks ... (from left: Josh Gibson, me, and Oren Molovinsky) |
Anyone who has ever fantasized about trading places with Padma Lakshmi (guilty) or Tom Colicchio will understand how excited I was when I was invited to be a judge at a live chef-to-chef competition at the
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian's Living Earth Festival. My excitement, I must confess, was tempered with a touch of tummy rumbling nervousness, as speaking in front of people is far from my favorite thing to do. You see, just a couple of weeks prior to the Smithsonian competition, I sat in as a judge for another food competition in Baltimore for an
Urbanite article, and I was a bit unnerved to have to speak into a microphone and make pronouncements about the dishes -
right in front of the chefs. Gulp.