Posted by Atlanta Journal-Constitution, GA on January 18, 2010 at 12:33:27:
Cooking queen rises to the Pillsbury Bake-Off
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mary Louise Lever of Rome has chopped, sautéed and caramelized her way to culinary glory.
.Over three decades, she’s won thousands of dollars -- not to mention kitchenware, appliances and free trips to Spain and Tuscany -- in recipe and cooking contests. She cooked on "The Today Show" with Willard Scott. As a reward for a strawberry shortcake pie recipe, her face graced a limited edition of cans of Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk.
Despite her success, Lever was unsatisfied.
She’d never been picked to compete in the biggest cooking contest of all: the Pillsbury Bake-Off.
“It is,” she declared, “the queen mother of all contests.”
But her decades of frustration disappeared last year when she got the fateful acceptance call from Pillsbury. In April, she’ll join 99 other kitchen wizards to compete in the 44th annual competition in Orlando.
“I was totally astounded and, believe it or not, speechless,” she said. “I sat down. I was in the kitchen. I took a deep breath and said, ‘I’ve made it.’ ”
The grand prize is a whopping $1 million, but Lever isn’t preoccupied with the money.
“I’m just thrilled to go, and 99 other people are, too,” she said.
Lever comes from a cooking family. Her mother, sister and in-laws have all won numerous cooking contests. One requirement for recipe contests, she noted, is that entrants cannot be cooking professionals.
“I’m a foodie citizen at large,” she said.
Lever, who declines to reveal her age, entered her first contest in 1987 and has brought home more cookbooks and appliances than she can count. She’s won three of the big five national contests -- the Goldkist Chicken, the Bays English Muffin and the National Chicken – and competed in the National Beef. Her biggest monetary prize was $25,000 in the 1995 national chicken competition.
To enter Pillsbury, entrants submitted recipes online. The list was narrowed to 100. Other contestants from Georgia are Maurice Chinn of Brunswick (oatmeal raisin cheesecake crumble), Jennifer Hunter of Marietta (spiced mocha chocolate cookies) and Pam Tapia of Sugar Hill (chocolate-orange pastries).
Lever will cook bistro-style artichoke and onion gallette, an open-topped pie, in the “entertaining appetizers” category.
“That’s my favorite thing to do in the world,” she said. “I’m a party person. I wanted to do something that’s middle American, approachable as far as the recipe goes, but very elegant.”
Lever does more than cook. She loves to paint watercolors and serves as a trustee for the Georgia Highlands College Foundation. Part of her contest winnings go to a nursing scholarship.
She maintains a Southern flavor in all her dishes, even those with a foreign basis. She travels widely and samples different foods.
“I never thought my little hobby would take me to these places,” she said.
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