Finals held at Omni PGA Frisco Resort
Golf is a competitive sport. Player against the course and par. Player against player. So, it should come as no surprise that a North Carolina golf club’s kitchen team would want to test their mettle against their peers.
Enter Caroline Juba, saucier at Champion Hills Golf Club in Hendersonville, North Carolina, who competed in the 2024 Culinary Innovation Challenge, a nationwide recipe contest.
Juba, two years removed from culinary school, brainstormed and came up with a lentil-stuffed mushroom with tomato romesco and arugula oil—a vegan dish inspired by her sister and her work at Curate, a Spanish tapas restaurant in Asheville.
Juba submitted her recipe, photos and the accompanying paperwork an hour before the July 31 deadline, and largely forgot about the contest until her club’s manager, Patrick Necessary, pulled her out in front of the house lineup. He informed the Champion Hills team that Juba had prevailed against entries from throughout the Troon network and would be representing Entegra, the hospitality culinary purveyor she works for.
She traveled to the contest’s finals at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort in Frisco, Texas, on Sept. 25, where she was pitted against Jon Dubrick, an executive chef from a test kitchen in Los Angeles in a 45-minute cooking competition.
Dubrick, who made maple-miso glazed sweet potatoes with beluga lentils and minted yogurt, was declared the winner in a narrow decision. Finishing runner-up hardly dampened the experience for Juba.
While she enjoyed her time in the Lone Star State,the remnants of Hurricane Helene were closing in on the Asheville region. She made it back to her apartment in the mountains hours before the worst of the once-in-a-millennium storm ravaged the area.
When the rain stopped, she used a community grill and prepared food for residents of six nearby apartment complexes. When the roads allowed, she returned to Champion Hills.
“I had no idea what was happening, so I showed up in my chef coat and got work,” Juba said.
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Featured image courtesy of Caroline Juba courtesy of Kingfish Communications
