Nutritionist’s recipe takes the cake--and $100,000 Alumna Sharon Collison, who teaches nutrition concepts at UD, loves to cook and to experiment with cooking. It paid off big time when her Chocolate-Coffee Cheesecake with Mocha Sauce had all the ingredients for success and won the grand prize of $100,000 on Sept. 22 in the Southern Living magazine cook-off.

Sharon Collison prepares her grand prize-winning Chocolate-Coffee Cheesecake with Mocha Sauce under the watchful eyes of celebrity chef Tyler Florence, host of the Food Network’s ‘Food 911’ and ‘How to Boil Water.’ (Photo courtesy of Southern Living)

3:18 p.m., Sept. 27, 2005--Alumna Sharon Collison, who teaches nutrition concepts at UD, loves to cook and to experiment with cooking. It paid off big time when her Chocolate-Coffee Cheesecake with Mocha Sauce had all the ingredients for success and won the grand prize of $100,000 on Sept. 22 in the Southern Living magazine cook-off.

“When the announcement was made, I was shaking and crying so that the celebrity chef, Tyler Florence, who made the award, said later he had to hold me up. They presented me with a large check--6 feet long--for $100,000 with a real one to follow,” Collison said.

Her recipe was one of three nationwide selected in the “Southern Desserts” category for which she won $1,000 as a semi-finalist. She and her husband, Joe, were flown to Birmingham, Ala., where the magazine is located, for the final cook-off.

There were five categories and 15 cooks competing for the prizes in their categories--Southern Desserts, Healthy and Good for You, Easy Entrees, Your Best Recipe, and Kids Love It!--and for the grand prize. The winners of each category came from all over the country--Texas, California, Oregon, Connecticut and, of course, Delaware.

Collison’s Chocolate-Coffee Cheesecake with Mocha Sauce (Photo courtesy of Southern Living)

“Soon after Joe and I arrived, where we stayed at a lovely resort, I was taken to the Southern Living kitchens because I had to make part of my recipe in advance,” Collison said. “The next day, all of us were cooking for an hour and a half. All I had left to do was make the sauce, so I had lots of time to be nervous. After the cooking was complete, our dishes were taken from the kitchens and presented to the judges, who were Southern Living editors.”

The main event was held Thursday at the Ayls Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Studio, where all the contestants were filmed preparing their recipes. Then came the big announcement--the grand prize winner was Sharon Collison from Newark!

Meantime, home in Delaware, Collison’s parents and children, Lauren and Rachel, were rooting for her. “Joe called my parents, but they misunderstood and thought I’d won the dessert category. When I called my mother the next day, she was overwhelmed to learn I’d won the grand prize,” Collison said.

Collison teaches nutrition concepts at UD.

Collison majored in food science and graduated from UD in 1989. She received her master’s in nutrition in 1993, and she is taking the initial steps toward entering a doctoral program in biomechanics.

To learn more about the cook-off and the other prize-winning recipes, go to [southernlivingcookoff.com].

Article by Sue Moncure
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson

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