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OREM — The American Culinary Federation’s national convention proved to be an exciting event for Utah Valley University. Not only did the university’s Culinary Arts Institute win its first national championship, one of its students won Student Chef of the Year.
Delta resident Michelle Stephenson became UVU’s first individual national champion at the national convention that took place July 15-19 in Phoenix, according to UVU.
At the convention, Stephenson was allotted 90 minutes to create a dish that would be judged by experienced, top level chefs. The participants, who represented the four regions of the U.S., received an ingredient list a few weeks before the convention and came up with recipes using that list. One of those ingredients was arctic char, which Stephenson had never worked with before, according to UVU.
“It was definitely a challenge, but the great chef instructors at UVU helped me settle on a menu designed to impress the judges,” Stephenson said in a statement.
On Stephenson’s menu, there was pan-seared arctic char with creamy char mousseline stuffed crepe, char-roe beurre blanc, pan-fried char and shrimp cake, smoked belly, celery root-vegetable puree with a pea and vegetable medley, UVU said.
“She used almost the entire fish in some way or another,” UVU assistant professor and department chair Todd Leonard said in a statement. “The judges love to see how creative you can be with the main ingredient.”

Stephenson, who graduated from UVU in April, told KSL.com she has been cooking almost her entire life, and she’s been in the culinary industry for about three or four years. “Part of my passion for cooking has come from being able to serve people and share part of myself and part of my talents and being able to see the enjoyment of people,” Stephenson told KSL.com. “That’s kind of why I got into cooking.”
When Stephenson first started her program at UVU, she thought baking was her one passion. Since then, she’s learned to love cooking as well, and has felt more comfortable cooking savory foods, she said.
Stephenson said it felt simultaneously overwhelming and satisfying to win the competition.

“It’s really neat to see where my hard work and perseverance has taken me and all that I’ve accomplished,” Stephenson said. “But then it’s almost kind of a surreal feeling — it’s one that’s it’s a competition that’s been highly anticipated for a long time, and now it’s over and done with and it’s just kind of hard to believe.” UVU students came out on top in the culinary knowledge bowl double-elimination event. The four teams that participated had all won their regional championships, according to UVU.
“I could not be more proud of this team,” coach John Thomas, assistant professor and chef instructor at UVU’s Culinary Arts Institute, said in a statement. “They literally put in hundreds of extra hours preparing for this, and they certainly came here to win.”
