Behind the Bake-Off Scene

Updated: April 9, 2008 - 4:26 PM

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What does it take to win $1 million? For Ellie Mathews it was a recipe and some chicken thighs in the back of her freezer. She tells the tale of winning the 1998 Pillsbury Bake-Off in "The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir" (Berkley, 277 pages, $23.95). The title refers to her forgetting to include a garnish on the recipe she entered. With graceful writing, Mathews takes us behind the scenes at the Bake-Off and other cooking competitions, where strategy goes far beyond "parsley or not."

Her winning recipe for Salsa Couscous Chicken was one of three that this frugal cook entered. She sent it in almost as an afterthought, having prepared it only twice. Yet there she was in the Orlando hotel ballroom with 99 other contestants.

"The percussion of cabinet drawers and doors opening and closing gave way to the furious sounds of chopping and frying. A not entirely pleasant bouquet of onion, chocolate, mushrooms, cinnamon, garlic, lemon, and sausage lifted into the air. Everyone around me seemed to be stirring, blending, slicing, frying, and generally going at it as if in a race," she wrote.

"We had until two o'clock. And I had my strategy from having watched the Olympics: Don't be first. Don't even be second."

Her plan was to deliver the finished dish late in the prep time of the Bake-Off so it wouldn't get lost in the judging.

It didn't.

LEE SVITAK DEAN