Final practice - first notes: from the lead judge and a former contestant

Work and school schedules kept more than half of this year's C-CAP finalists from this weekend's final practice session at Arizona Culinary Institute with lead judge Chef Glenn Humphrey.

Chef Glenn gave a rapid-fire demo of the required entrée, chicken chasseur, and took time to review tourneed potatoes.

"Move the potato, not the knife," he says, "and make sure you get 'em about the same size so they cook evenly and quickly. And don't wear gloves - you're gonna cook these, you don't need to be gloved. Save the gloves for when you're working with food ready to serve."

And about those gloves…"Get some blue ones," says C-CAP graduate Justin Richardson. "If you use blue gloves, you'll know right away if you've nicked one enough to leave even a tiny piece in the food."

Chef Glenn ran through a step-by-step guide to preparing chicken chasseur (see below!) before finalists began formal practice.

As a graduate, Justin offered a few thoughts as he observed finalists at work, drawing from his own C-CAP finals as well as his work experience in the kitchens at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak.

"People need to be prepared to eat, breathe, sleep this competition for the next week, because it's the little things that trip you up and cost you points," he says.

"First, figure out your weakest point, and get busy on it. I can see hat everyone here is off to a good start, but there's a real need to buckle down and be serious. Focus on the work."

• Keep your sauce supple, not over-reduced. When you over-reduce, it gets gummy.
• Make sure your pastry cream is - well, creamy. You should not be able to taste that you used flour to thicken it!
• Keep your pastry cream creamy by placing a piece of plastic directly on top of the cream! Otherwise, it will develop a yucky-tasting 'skin,' which, by the way, Mr. Grausmann really dislikes.
• Keep your chocolate sauce away from the pilot light - you could inadvertently scorch it and - no matter what you do to recover - your final dish will retain a faint scorched sense.
• Remember: it is a chocolate sauce. If you use it primarily as garnish, at least put a few squiggles or dots directly on the crepes. (People like to taste chocolate!)
• Take along extra product, especially extra chocolate, stock, glace. Carry extra towels and gloves. (You might not need them - but what if you knock over the pot of stock?)
• Practice working in a tight (two feet by three feet or so) space - that's all the room you'll have during the finals.
• Keep moving your used equipment out of the way. By the time you're ready to plate, you should have a nearly empty work space to use.
• Use the photos on the C-CAP web site to come up with a plan for presentation. You don't need to be overly creative - make it appealing and neat and step away from the plate!

Justin has one final bit of advice: "You need to focus. It can be $80,000. Think how much winning this scholarship could change your life. I know it's possible," he says.

"It changed mine."