Nothing phases Candace McMenamin: not the throng of young teens jostling her table as she chops jalapeno peppers; not the fact that only her mother accompanied her from South Carolina to New York for the Simply Manischewitz Kosher Cook-Off; and least of all, the fact that she’s not actually Jewish. To her, the extra attention she seems to be getting from the hovering rabbis isn’t even a distraction; it’s all about the flavors, and if her $20,000 windfall at this year’s competition is any indication, she’s onto something. Her winning entry, Sweet Potato Encrusted Chicken, is at once a sophisticated dish that marries sweet, acidic, and savory elements, and a quick-and-dirty entrée that she engineered with busy home cooks in mind–people pretty much like her, just with a few extra restrictions on what and how they prepare for a meal.

As McMenamin and I chatted throughout the hour-long final round of the competition today, she reflected on how the contest’s eight ingredient maximum and strict kashrut dietary regulations actually helped her to make choices when she first began brainstorming recipe ideas. “I like to keep it simple,” she said, “Well, simple and interesting. I love a mix of flavors and textures.” When you take into account that she has already been a finalist at the Pillsbury Bake-Off–twice–and recently won $10,000 in a beef contest, you can see where she gets the confidence that inspired her to take a few risks with her recipe. Indeed, among the six finalists, she is the only one to include spicy heat, and she also makes a bold statement in choosing chicken breasts–notoriously tricky to cook properly in an unfamiliar oven. Take an extra second to wipe the matzoh meal from your hands, and suddenly, you might as well be baking the Potato Pancake Mix box.

Then again, McMenamin, as well as the other five finalists, have had ample opportunities to practice making their dishes since they first submitted their entries this autumn, moving through regional and semifinal rounds that winnowed the field of contestants down from more than a thousand to just these six. One entrant, Rayzel Yaish, a school psychologist from suburban New Jersey, found an added bit of competitive leverage as a crowd of several dozen students trickled in to support their ‘Dr. (Falafel Stuffed) Pepper’ on to victory. Not only did the stacked crowd give her a very vocal home-court advantage, it didn’t hurt that all those teens couldn’t help but jostle the other competitors a bit in the bargain. After a few cutting boards, jars, and cameras were upended in the pubescent bustle, the contest organizers made the very wise decision to cordon the kids off at the back of the room and distract them with a lunch buffet.

But in the end, the mob was a mere distraction, and it was a gentile from south of the Mason-Dixon Line who won the day with her calm, self-possessed mien: “I’ve got a teenager at home. I honestly don’t even hear or notice when the kids are there while I’m cooking, unless they’re talking directly to me,” McMenamin quipped, stirring her apricot jam & grape juice glaze, “But really, it makes me feel at home.” Candace’s serenity in the midst of all the contest madness brought to mind some of the most memorable cooking competition veterans (’contesters’) profiled in one of our favorite books of 2003, Amy Sutherland’s Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America. After all, if McMenamin can steal top honors at a kosher cooking contest without breaking a schvitz, we suspect she might just have the makings of a cookoff legend.
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For many more photos of all six competitors and the dishes they presented today at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, visit our Flickr photostream by clicking here.