N.C. potato-peeling champ at home in the kitchen

By Theresa Curry

Correspondent

Armed with a new peeler (he prefers the type used to scrape carrots), Randy Midgett is ready to defend his title as North Carolina's fastest potato peeler at the North Carolina Potato Festival in Elizabeth City on May 17.

Midgett, a structural engineer with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, has tried various ways to sharpen and improve the conventional peeler, but so far he hasn't succeeded.

"I just try to remember to buy a new one," he said.

He doesn't practice much, he admits, just as often as he prepares potatoes for the meals he cooks for his family. He's a member of the winning team as well as the individual potato peeling champ: "Everyone thinks we sit around peeling potatoes all year, but we've never practiced," he said. "I always think of the images in old movies of soldiers with KP duty - mountains of potatoes and the guys sitting there with peels all over the floor, looking bored. None of us has ever done anything like that."

One of the original team members, Andy Montero, does have a bit of a professional edge. He's a chef, and owner of Montero's Restaurant in Elizabeth City. He was responsible for assembling the team of champion peelers when the festival was revived five years ago. He's also inspired Midgett and a group of close friends to try new and creative recipes in their home cooking.

"I've always been one to experiment and tinker with things," Midgett said.

His mother, Sandy, worked as the child nutrition director for Dare County schools and also loved to cook at home.

"In the summer, my parents would go off to work and I was left to my own devices," he said. "I realized that I was going to get awfully tired of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all summer long."

Midgett leafed through the Betty Crocker cookbook his mother used. From the start, he set his sights high. He didn't begin with grilled cheese sandwiches or canned soup: He began with a couple of pints of strawberries to make a lattice-topped strawberry pie.

"I just kind of went on from there," he said.

Once he married, his wife, Ginger, did most of the cooking until the children arrived. Ginger works for Albemarle Regional Health Services.

"We'd come home from work and someone would need to make dinner, and someone would need to give the baby a bath," he said. "After a few bouts with getting shampoo in my daughter's eyes and water all over me, I thought maybe I would do better in the kitchen."

A small group of friends got together every week to try out new recipes with Montero, who was teaching at Johnson & Wales University while he catered and renovated his new restaurant. With the chef's help, they tried their hand at Mexican, Italian, Cajun and Thai-influenced dishes, and Midgett still uses the characteristic techniques and flavors of a variety of international cuisines in his daily meals.

"I cook pretty much seven nights a week," he said. "I do have to take into account my children's preferences." Katie, 14, and Evan, 10, like his chicken and orzo but often request something simpler, such as hamburgers or quesadillas.

In the upcoming potato competition, finesse matters as much as speed. The contestants can't gain an advantage by doing fast but sloppy work.

"They weigh the peeled potatoes - and they have to be smooth, with no eyes showing - and they weigh the peelings," Midgett said.

In competition, he can generally count on peeling about 5 pounds of potatoes in five minutes. And his style, as he describes it, is not pretty.

"I hold the potato against me and keep it turning," he said. "By the time the contest is over, I'm a dirty, muddy mess."

Theresa Curry, flavor@pilotonline.com