Morgantown woman to compete in World Food Championships
Sherry Kozlowski poses with her finished stuffed French toast dish in her home Thursday. Kozlowski will be competing in the World Food Championships with this recipe.
Sherry Kozlowski dunks her goat cheese-stuffed bread into an egg wash before transferring it over to be coated in frosted flakes. Kozlowski will be competing in the World Food Championships with her sweet and savory French toast recipe.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Sherry Kozlowski might not have a professional culinary team or years of experience in the competitive kitchen, but she has one thing she hopes will help her come out on top at the World Food Championships next week: recipes she believes in.
It started out as a love for baking, escalated to entering regional food competitions and now the Morgantown resident is preparing for the chance of a lifetime: the World Food Championships, the largest competition in food sport. This year, 430 champions of previous events will come together to compete in Orange Beach, Ala., for a chance at winning the crown and some serious cash.
Kozlowski has a chance to take home $10,000 if she wins the “Recipe” category, one of nine different divisions – the others are BBQ, Chili, Dessert, Bacon, Sandwich, Seafood, Burger and Steak.
The division winners have a shot at $100,000, which is awarded for the best dish overall.
Contestants in the Recipe category are required to serve up their best breakfast dishes at the competition.
“It would be life-changing, honestly. It would validate that I’m doing something I love that is worthwhile,” she said.
Kozlowski qualified for the World Food Championships by taking home the top prize in the National Amateur Mushroom cook-off in Kennett Square in September – which was no easy feat.
“We just went because I qualified,” she said. “When I was doing it, I knew it was good. I was tasting it and was saying, ‘I got this.’ But then I looked around and everybody’s looked, really, really good.”
Despite competing against the reigning champion and more experienced teams, Kozlowski took home the top prize for her Sunnyside of ‘Shrooms dish – landing her a spot in the World Food Championships next week.
Her 24-year-old niece, Megan Hayden, is making the 16-hour drive to Alabama with her next week and will serve as her sous chef for the competition. Kozlowski’s portion of the competition kicks off Friday.
“A lot of people have teams, and I don’t have a team. So, I may be the underdog, but that’s OK. We’ll see what happens,” Kozlowski said. “I’m taking it very calmly. I’m making recipes that I love. I really, truly think that I will get into the money round. I think my recipes are that good.”
Kozlowski will make two breakfast dishes for the first round of competition.
The first is her take on the traditional Eggs Benedict – a dish all participants in the “Recipe” competition will be required to make. Kozlowski has named her dish the “Desert Heat Eggs Benedict” because she will be making her own English muffins with jalapeños and Asiago cheese.
For her second dish, Kozlowski created a recipe for a goat cheese-stuffed French toast, coated in ground Frosted Flakes and topped with a blueberry and lavender sauce.
“I just think that it’s fun to play with flavors, marry different flavors together,” she said. “I hope it’s award-winning. I don’t know what I’m up against.”
A panel of local and celebrity judges will evaluate each dish and decide who moves on to the next rounds.
If her breakfast dishes are as big of a hit as she hopes, Kozlowski and Hayden will move on to the next round Nov. 13, where the two will prepare a sausage and egg breakfast pot pie.
Since she learned she qualified for the World Food Championships, Kozlowski has been preparing and practicing the recipes constantly. She’s spent weeks testing ingredients and gathering the carload of supplies she needs to take with her to the competition – hoping for the best.
“It’s not every day that you can compete and say, ‘Yeah, I did that,”‘ she said. “I’m just going to go in confident and know that my recipes are good.”
Win or lose, she said the competition gives her the chance to put her skills to the test, have fun and continue to do something she loves.
Kozlowski began cooking in high school when she took a food preparation course at a nearby vocational school her junior and senior years of high school.
Since then she’s developed a passion for baking – especially cookies – and thinking up new things to try in the kitchen.
“I think from that point on, it was just something I knew I wanted to do,” she said. “It’s an outlet. I have an artistic eye for things. I think it’s another outlet to make stuff that’s creative and beautiful. You need to eat with your eyes first, and this is the way to do it.”
Since she started entering competitions, her culinary adventures have landed her the top spots in several state and regional recipe competitions and she was even featured on “Good Morning America” for her flourless chocolate cake recipe with a hazelnut ganache.
“I said, ‘I’m just going to do what I like and see where I can go with that.’ It’s just playing on something that I like. I’ve loved doing this for a long time, so I just figured (I would try it),” she said.
“Having recipes that you create yourself, and you don’t have to get out a card and follow it, and you can say, ‘Yeah, that’s what I made and it tasted good,’ that’s something that lets you know you know you’re on the right track.”
Supporters can cheer on Kozlowski by following her on Facebook or following the results at www.worldfoodchampionships.com.
The competition is also filmed for cable television and has previously aired on A&E and Discovery Channel.
“I’m actually going to do this,” she said. “This is the big times. This is a really, really big deal.”