There are a few tricks to every trade. My trade was newspaper editor. And one of my tricks to lighten the workload during holidays was to stockpile copy that could be plugged in to save time.
For instance, as Thanksgiving approached, I’d collect recipes for how to cook a turkey from grade-school kids. It was cute and put local names in the paper.
The recipes were, of course, pretty awful. A recipe for a turkey salad sandwich, I remember, consisted of putting a slice of turkey on bread with lettuce (salad) on top.
But, after all, these were just kids.
Addison Osta Smith is a kid. But there need be no allowances made for the food this 9-year-old creates. Addison is the winner of this year’s MasterChef Junior competition.
The series brings together pint-sized prodigies from all across the country competing for a title, a trophy and $100,000.
Since Addison is from River Forest, I developed a rooting interest and followed the series to her ultimate triumph.
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What did she make that won her the contest? Her three-course meal consisted of:
Appetizer: Sake-marinated shrimp with a seaweed, sea bean, sour plum and puffed rice salad.
Entree: Lobster and crawfish etouffee and a miso-glazed black cod dish.
Dessert: Green tea panna cotta, crumbled cookie and bruleed plums.
What have all these dished and ingredients in common?
That I haven’t eaten any of them.
In fact, I don’t know what any of them are.
Wait, wait, I think cod is what they make fish sandwiches out of at Culver’s.
Addison’s accomplishment is dazzling. How does a 9-year-old know about coconut ginger broth?
The answer, of course, is that there is no way of knowing what brilliant people know.
Addison is a culinary Mozart.
The mind boggles at what she will create in her future career.
I am not a culinary – or any other kind of – Mozart. But I know Addison will create a lot more than a turkey salad sandwich.
Congratulations, young lady.
Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.