Well, it has been a minute since I have posted! I had no idea that almost a whole month had gone by since my last post! Time is flying and I have done nothing to support this business in the last 30 days.

Let’s see….what have I been doing? I entered a contest…well, some sort of contest…

I think it was sometime in March that I came across this Favorite Chef post on Instagram. So I clicked it, just to see what it was about. Then it said to answer some questions and get entered into the running. Well, alright – so I did! Submitting my name for this contest was so completely outside my comfort zone! I didn’t really know what it was all about when it started but am slowly realizing that it doesn’t seem to have too much to do with your cooking skills. I dunno….I’m a little disappointed because when I initially signed up, I thought maybe there would be some cooking challenges, but there have been none so far. So I just keep doing my own. Which brought me to a question that I haven’t been able to answer – what is my niche??

Every time I ask myself that question, I have a billion different answers. I just can’t seem to land in one place. I think there are plenty of cooks that highlight meals for home but I think I want my focus to be for outdoor cooking. Whether it’s cooking outdoors at home or traveling or camping – it will have an outdoor focus. I mean kitchen stoves are boring! Cooking over a fire, or an outdoor pizza oven, in cast iron, or using a camping stove…those are things I can get excited about…and forces me to be ok with purchasing some of the extras that go along with cooking outdoors – like a pizza oven! I have been wanted to play with an outdoor brick pizza oven for years! But, I digress.

Back to the cooking competition that doesn’t seem to be a cooking competition. I had kind of envisioned myself making cooking videos and getting people to vote on those but so far, I just keep asking my friends to vote for my headshot. Yes, I did give a little paragraph about my favorite foods and what I would do with the prize money, but it’s just been my friends and family that have voted. There was just had an elimination round last week where half the contestants were eliminated, and I made it through – which I think is good. I am hopeful that if I make it to the finals that I will be able to make a video of some sort. I just think that a cooking competition should have a cooking competition.

Currently, I am in 4th place in my group (which I have no idea how many groups there are and I also have no idea how many votes I have). If you are so inclined to vote via Facebook for me, I would greatly appreciate it! Just follow this link https://favchef.com/2024/staci-christianson. Also, if you want to see some things I have made, check out my Instagram, TikTok, or FB page (linked below).

My overall goal with this is to become more comfortable recording myself cooking and talking. Get my cookbook going. Sell seasonings, herbs, and teas. Practice my craft. Retire. And there I am again landing all over the place. Just too much I want!

I will have an upcoming post on a couple different dishes that I have made later today, so feel free to browse those and then GO VOTE!! (for me of course).