Can’t Be Beet: Freshman prepares himself a plate of success at a national cooking competition

Freshman chef Holden Dahlerbruch recently competed on Man vs. Child: Chef Showdown, which airs every Thursday on FYI Network. On this television show, Dahlerbruch faced off against experienced professionals, competing for bragging rights.

Whether it be making eggs or learning to mince onions, Dahlerbruch has been in the kitchen ever since he was inspired by his father at a young age. Dahlerbruch also learns from watching Alton Brown’s and Anthony Bourdain’s cooking shows. Additionally, he gains practical experience in his home kitchen and with his cooking club, where he can practice in a more relaxed setting.

“When cooking, it is all about checking to make sure every single component is to my liking,” Dahlerbruch said. “Sometimes when there is a component I have, and I think about it for a second and it is not great and it is not good, I either redo it if I have time or leave it off the plate.”

Dahlerbruch was one of over 100 young chefs from across the country who were selected to audition for the show. After a few unsuccessful auditions for Masterchef Junior, a new cooking show for aspiring chefs, the casting director suggested that he audition for Man vs. Child: Chef Showdown. During the audition, he was challenged to create an advanced dish in just 30 minutes. After succeeding, he was offered a spot on the show.

“My favorite part of being on the show is that I get to showcase my abilities for a national audience,” Dahlerbruch said. “I get to fight for the idea that if anyone sets their mind to anything, they can succeed depending on how hard they try.”

In each episode, an executive chef competes against a group of five young chefs individually. The competitor’s culinary abilities are evaluated through three rounds of cooking challenges In one episode, cooks were asked to create three dishes that required a different kind of skill. This round put the cooks’ molecular gastronomy skills, which is the chemistry behind the cooking, to the test. The cooks edited food with different textures, flavors, and other qualities. The three dishes Dahlerbruch cooked included a celery root soup with mustard oil and pickled cabbage foam, a sous vide spiced carrot and a watermelon salad. In order to make these dishes, he used techniques such as compression to change the flavor and texture throughout the food. Skills like these helped Dahlerbruch throughout the competition.
Throughout the production of the show, Dahlerbruch’s culinary abilities drastically improved. The competitive atmosphere of the show encouraged him to perform to the best of his ability while cooking and helped him perform better in a stressful environment.

“A lot of [the new skills I learned were] from the competing chefs,” Dahlerbruch said. “[They are] who you are competing against, and how they have taken the challenge [and] how they are creative. Pretty much it is looking at what they are doing, studying their skills to try to make them our own.”

Dahlerbruch enjoyed the experience, including making friends with other contestants and applying his knowledge of cooking to an extremely different setting than the everyday kitchen. He participated in the show for the entire first season.

“[Cooking] is an art form,” Dahlerbruch said. “I choose cooking because it employs all five of the senses. You can smell the fish, you can hear the sizzle or crackle, you can taste it [and] you can touch it. It’s every single one of the senses.”