The Cooking Olympics World's Best Kept Secret (Book 1)

Chef Dean's greatest inspiration for writing this book was because chefs devote a huge amount of time to competing, so the people who go to their restaurants will enjoy new menu ideas for their dining pleasure. The world of competitive cooking is so unusual, readers will be shocked that they have never heard about it before now. To write this book, Chef Dean had to live the life of a chef. He had to try cooking to see if he liked it or could even keep up with the fast-paced environment of the kitchen, and later went to culinary school near Chicago. He fell into cooking competitions by chance, but quickly went on to win several pastry competitions. Chef Dean's research and writing attracted the attention of the World Association of Chefs based out of Paris, France. Combined with the effort of the press team from the German Chefs' Association in Frankfurt, photos were supplied to him that helped to tell part of the story back in 2012. Now it's finally finished altogether here in "The Cooking Olympics: World's Best Kept Secret."

Dean Jeffrey Kropp grew up near Chicago in the 1970s, dreaming of playing baseball for the Chicago Cubs or White Sox. He started cooking professionally in 1976 and headed to culinary school. He later received pastry training at LeChateau Swiss Restaurant and Pastry Shop, which had just opened in Chicago. He ended up working in hotels and pastry shops in Memphis, Napa Valley, Montego Bay, and New York City. He began writing this book in 2018, which later took him to Cooking Olympics competitions in Stuttgart, Germany and Fort Lee, Virginia. Despite a few surgeries and medical issues, Kropp continued to write and test recipes for "The Cooking Olympics."