Washington County woman advances in Favorite Chef competition
Courtesy of Bren Norris
Courtesy of Bren Norris
Bren Norris’ culinary training is nontraditional: she grew up cooking for her working parents and four siblings, and learned to make the family’s Polish recipes before experimenting in her own kitchen. Norris recently made it to the top 10 round of Favorite Chef presented by Carla Hall.
As part of the Favorite Chef competition, contestants watch videos on cooking techniques, plating and branding, the latter of which Bren Norris of North Strabane hadn’t delved into. She’s enjoying showcasing her culinary skills on Polish dishes, part of her branding. (Photo courtesy of Bren Norris)
Bren Norris recalls her grandmother making pierogies in the kitchen when she was a little girl, and as an adult, Norris has perfected – and even experimented with – the family recipe. She plated pierogies on a Polish dish and uploaded it to her Favorite Chef contestant website, and hopes to make it to the top five round. (Photo courtesy of Bren Norris)
By 4 a.m. July 7, Bren Norris was wide awake, eagerly checking the voting results of “Favorite Chef presented by Carla Hall.”
“I’m kind of tired, but I’m excited,” laughed Norris when she picked up the phone last Friday afternoon. “To be this far: I’ve gone ahead of some really worthy chefs that are actual chefs, trained. I’m, like, really happy that I’m into the top 10. I’m pretty confident in my cooking and I’m having fun, I’m getting to the next level.”
The Favorite Chef competition is hosted online by Colossal.org and whittles thousands of professionally trained and self-taught chefs down to one winner, who receives an exclusive cooking experience with renowned chef Carla Hall, a two-page advertorial spread in Taste of Home magazine and $25,000.
Contestants are separated into groups, and compete against others in their group, posting photos of their newest culinary confections and vying for votes from family members, friends and the general public. Members from each group are eliminated every voting round until one chef per group remains and quarterfinals begin July 24.
Norris, of Washington County, who has no formal culinary training, made the cut for her group’s top 10 last week. Voting for top five continues through 10 p.m. Thursday, July 13.
“There are a lot of real Cordon Bleu-educated chefs in this competition, but there’s a lot of people who have a background like I have,” Norris said.
Norris, who grew up in Allentown and now lives in North Strabane, started cooking at age 11 not because she loved it, but because it was expected of her.
“My parents both worked. My mother worked in a factory, my father worked at Mack Trucks. We were five kids in school. Being the oldest girl, my mother would say, ‘OK, Bren, remember I showed you how to do this,'” said Norris, adding her mom would place a recipe beside the stove each morning. “When I got home from school at 3:30 I’d have to start cooking. When my parents got home at 5, it’d be all ready.”
Norris learned traditional Polish recipes (she’s 100% Polish) which she has memorized, and then expanded both her palette and skills. Today, she bakes up a mean World Famous Chocolate Cake, a 50-year-old family recipe, as easily as she whips up blueberry cobbler, and loves experimenting in the kitchen.
But it’s her Polish cuisine that’s garnered her a following throughout the Favorite Chef competition.
“I’m learning plating and branding. Carla (Hall) did a video just for the competitors about plating. If you look at my dishes, I have a collection of Polish pottery from Poland that I’ve been collecting for 30 years. That’s like my trademark, if you will,” Norris said. “We’re connecting the Polish dishes and my background so that people will remember me. I had no idea to do that until I watched those videos.”
Norris said many of those voting for her week after week are strangers, and she’s enjoying meeting new people as she acquires new skills and pushes herself outside the comfort zone – something that’s not exactly new, but still sometimes nerve-wracking, to the former seventh- and eighth-grade music teacher who modeled professionally, ran a national staffing company in Sonoma, Calif., and put out two children’s music records.
Once, the woman who voted for 15 years for the Grammys tinkered with her family’s beloved pierogi recipe on a wild whim.
“There’s this one little place (in Sonoma) where I’d watch the Steelers play,” Norris said, adding a respected doctor often dropped into the bar during game time. “He said, ‘Bren, you make pierogies?’ I said yes. He said, ‘Can you make duck pierogis? I’m going hunting, I’ll bring you the ducks.'”
One Steelers Sunday, the doctor strolled into the bar, “two ducks, one in each hand, fully feathered,” laughed Norris. “I said, ‘Doc, I don’t pluck ducks!’ The whole bar started laughing.”
An Irish gentleman promised to pluck the ducks for a dozen pierogis and Norris agreed. With the duck breast she created a mushroom, onion and duck pierogi.
“They were beautiful,” Norris remembered. “Kind of gourmet-style.”
For Norris, it doesn’t matter if food is gourmet or comfort; cooking is about the experience.
“Cooking for me is family and tradition and learning and love and good stories,” she said. “Food is love and communication and joy and community. That’s how I was raised. Everybody is welcome at my table.”
And everyone is welcome around her virtual table, too. As part of Favorite Chef, Norris posts food to both her competition website and her Facebook page, and is always willing to share recipes. She hopes the community will rally and send her into the top five.
Folks can vote online once daily or purchase Championship Votes, which are tax-deductible donations to the James Beard Foundation, one of the competition’s sponsors, at https://favchef.com/2023/bren-norris.
While Norris would love to win – she’s followed Hall since her time on “The Chew,” and thinks it’d be “a hoot” to cook alongside the former Top Chef – for her, this competition is just another fun challenge in a life filled with bright, wonderful moments.
“It’s been really fun,” she said. “My food stands, my love of cooking stands, my ability to communicate with people and have a good time. This is my love, cooking.”