It took almost 12 hours, but after the quiche came out of the oven and the last fritter was deep fried, the judges declared Mary Jo Fletcher LaRocco of North Kingstown the winner of this year’s New England Dairy Cook-Off, sponsored by HP Hood. The winning recipe was for her Cranberry Limoncello Tarts in a Gingersnap Hazelnut Crust.
This was the fourth year that the dairy giant conducted this cook-off and the first time it was held in Providence, at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Mary Jo has competed in every year of the competition, doing well but never winning the grand prize of $10,000 until this year.
The cook-off began at 7:30 on a Sunday morning, with 30 semifinalists competing in their respective categories: breakfast/brunch; soups/ chowders; appetizers/side dishes; lunch/dinner; and dessert. The amateur cooks had one hour to prepare and plate their dishes. By 6:30pm, the judges narrowed the field down to five finalists from across New England. The dishes that made it to the finals were a late-summer quiche, a chowder, fritters with a vichyssoise shooter, a seafood entreĢe, and Mary Jo’s tarts. Mary Jo said she wanted to use fall ingredients and fresh local products such as cranberries and maple syrup. On the day of the cook-off, Mary Jo admits she was both nervous and excited.
All the recipes had to be original, and include at least one Hood dairy product among their ingredients. The dishes were judged on creativity and originality, presentation and appearance, and taste appeal. According to one Hood official, Mary Jo’s tarts were “a great combination of creativity and amazing presentation.” She came up with her original recipe at the last minute.
“The night before the recipe deadline, I sat down and forced myself to come up with something,” Mary Jo said. “Once I knew the recipe was accepted for the cook-off, I had to get practicing it right away. So for three weeks we had a house full of lemon tarts and gave them away to anyone who walked in.”
A perfectionist, Mary Jo tweaked the recipe in each batch until she felt it had the right balance of flavors. The hardest part, she said, was getting the plating to look right. “I plated dozens of different ways and texted pictures to family and friends to get ideas,” she explained. “Everyone had a different opinion, but my husband’s eye is definitely the best, and he had the ideas that brought the final plating together.”
Mary Jo lives in North Kingstown with her husband and two children, ages 4 and 10 months. With a Ph.D. in education from a joint program with Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island, she teaches English as a second language (ESL) at colleges and universities in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. She also teaches part-time at URI, helping international and graduate students improve their writing and communication skills. She said she learned how to cook out of necessity when she moved to Bosnia in 1996, and it became her hobby when she moved back to the United States. She’s lived in Rhode Island for the past 10 years.
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