Merced caterer to appear on televised World Food Championships Final Table: Indy
A big reason Merced resident Kelli Fairchild-Cochran fell in love with cooking is she enjoys watching people discover her food — particularly their smile after taking a bite.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a judge of a cooking contest, a client of her catering business or a patron of her new restaurant that’s scheduled to open soon.
Fairchild-Cochran, 55, recently returned from Indianapolis last month, where she finished fourth in the World Food Championships’ Final Table: Indy. The finals was filmed for a special one-hour TV show that will air Oct. 3 on the Cooking Channel.
She won $12,000 during the competition. She won $2,000 for her fourth-place finish in the finals and $10,000 back in October for winning one of the 10 Category Championships in Dallas, which qualified her for the finals. Fairchild-Cochran won the Sandwich Category. She also won the same Sandwich Category in 2014.
Only 10 Category winners advance to the finals out of about 1,5000 contestants.
“I was very happy to get that far,” said Fairchild-Cochran.
Her First Cooking Competition
Fairchild-Cochran grew up in Planada and graduated from Le Grand High School. She started cooking in her 20s and soon started working for catering companies.
She’s self-taught in the kitchen. She said her mother was always a good cook. Fairchild-Cochran took hospitality management classes in college, but her cooking style developed after years of experimenting in the kitchen. Her husband Matthew, their five kids and 10 grandchildren love her cooking.
She started her own catering company, Kelli’s Custom Catering, 10 years ago and began competing in the World Food Championship cooking contests in 2014.
She showed up to her first competition hoping to serve as a sous chef for a friend in the competition. Her friend convinced Fairchild-Cochran to compete on her own.
So Fairchild-Cochran borrowed a knife, a sheet tray and a cutting board and ended up winning the Sandwich Category and $10,000. in Las Vegas.
“I remember they had a huge stage set up on Fremont Street in Las Vegas,” Fairchild-Cochran said. “I was staring at the banner that said, ‘1,500 competitors, 10 champions and one world champion.’ I was sitting there thinking ‘can that be me?’ The next morning they called my name after I won my category.”
Fairchild-Cochran has competed in the World Food Championship annual contest every year since and has two firsts, a second, two thirds and one fifth-place finish in the category rounds.
The contests have taken her to Las Vegas, Florida, Alabama, Dallas and Indianapolis.
“I love the travel,” she said. “These are all places I have never been before.”
The Cooking Competition
Fairchild-Cochran says her strategy for these cooking competitions is to keep it simple. She learned this when she made a beautiful Thai Club sandwich and lost to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
In the Dallas competition, she made a spicy carnitas torta for one of her early entrees and her take on a cuban sandwich by adding brisket and pulled pork. She then made a barbecue sandwich in the top 10 round to win the Sandwich Category championship.
In the opening round in Indianapolis, the 10 finalists were tasked with making a pork and Parisian gnocchi dish using Red Gold Tomatoes and pork cuts sourced from the National Pork Board. Fairchild-Cochran’s team was comprised of her sous chef PJ Copithorne and Fairchild-Cochran’s daughter Rachel Gray.
Fairchild-Cochran’s pork dish, which was titled Tomato and Cherry Braised Pork Shoulder, scored the highest mark in the contest with a 96.75 out of 100. She was penalized two points for turning in her recipe late, but her score of 94.75 was good enough to send her into the second round in third place.
The five remaining finalists had to recreate a delicate duck dish in the second challenge. Fairchild-Cochran and her team scored a 80.125 on their dish, just missing advancing to the final round by a quarter of a point.
“I love the thrill of competition,” Fairchild-Cochran said. “I was glad I got to show I don’t just make sandwiches. I got to show I’m a well-rounded cook.”
Fairchild-Cochran already has her watch party planned. She’ll be camping with family and friends when the show will air on Oct. 3. She plans on bringing a satellite and watching the show with the big group at the camp site.
What’s next?
Fairchild-Cochran is partnering with her friend Wayne Slate to open a restaurant in Chowchilla called Orchard Bar & Grll, which will be located in the SaveMart shopping center on Robertson Boulevard.
The restaurant is scheduled to open later this month and Fairchild-Cochran describes the food as elevated comfort and bar food.
Expect to see some of her signature sandwiches on the menu.
Fairchild-Cochran says the restaurant has a large patio that will help them open during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve had so many people who have been dying for me to open a restaurant,” she said. “Hopefully they will travel to Chowchilla. I have no doubt we’ll do well no matter what is going on.”
One of the reasons Fairchild-Cochran enjoys competing in the World Food Championship competitions is getting to see all of the friends she’s made over the years of competing. She’s also proud she’s representing Merced and Planada.
“I think it’s amazing where I came from, especially Planada,” Fairchild-Cochran said. “Putting Planada on the map. I know I have a lot of friends in Planada who are proud of me, I still know where I came from.”
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
