Meet the chefs who will be representing the Gulf Coast at this year's World Food Championships (WFC) in Indianapolis: Maegan Bratton, Brandy McGill and Fletch Miller.

After winning qualifying competitions or scoring in the top 10 at last year's WFC, these three will travel across the country to go against hundreds of chefs from around the world.

The WFC will be held Oct. 16-19 and will be streamed on the competition's YouTube page and social media sites.

Bratton owns and operates Cowbell Rolled Ice Cream in Gulf Shores with her husband, Greg.

McGill previously worked as the executive chef at Wolf Bay Restaurant but recently got a new job as executive chef at the White House Hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Miller is the food and beverage manager at the Island House Hotel in Orange Beach.

This will be McGill's first year competing in the WFC, though she has competed in, and won, several local competitions, including this year's Coastal Tailgate Cook-Off Challenge, which is where she won her golden ticket to the WFC.

She said she is excited about the experience and the opportunity to compete at this higher level.

Bratton and Miller have both competed in the WFC before.

After volunteering and then working at the WFC since 2017, Bratton has now competed in the seafood category for the past two years. She placed eighth at the competition one year with a New Years' Eve-themed meal. This year, she won a golden ticket from competing in Taste of America: Elevated with Marcel's Modern Pantry.

Miller has competed in the WFC in the recipe, seafood, chef and noodle categories. Several times, she has placed in the top seven, in which competitors earn a medal, a qualification to enter the second round of the competition and an invitation for the following year.

At the WFC, about 22 teams are selected per category; teams are made up of a chef and two extra people.

On Thursday and Friday, teams compete within all 10 categories: barbecue, live fire, vegetarian, seafood, chef, dessert, world, sandwich, burger and noodle.
Bratton and McGill are competing against each other in the sandwich category, and Miller is competing in the noodle category for the fourth year.

The second round of the competition takes place over the remainder of the weekend where one chef from each category will qualify for the final table competition; six months after the WFC where winners compete for world food champion.

KITCHEN ORIGIN STORIES

Bratton started working in a kitchen at McDonalds when she was 16. She started as a waitress at 19.

"Then I moved here, started waiting tables again and wanted to see what the kitchen was about because I like cooking," she said. "I got back there and have been in the business ever since."

For McGill, despite her passion for it, cooking was not always a part of her plans.

"I started off going to school for architecture of all things," she said. "Then I took a job cooking, became the assistant kitchen manager there at like 17, 18, and I've been cooking ever since."

Miller said her story was like the others as they're "all basically the same."

"It's not that we chose to do this," she said. "It chooses you, and then you just can't stop. It's like an addiction."

All three chefs agreed with each other when asked what keeps them inspired to cook.

"The reaction of people's faces when I cook; that's what I do it for," McGill said. "… That's golden."

"I just love it; it's creative," Bratton said. "… You just keep on wanting to do it, and the more you do it the more you learn."

"And it's fun, as crazy as it seems," Miller said. "All the work and the headaches and the sweat; it's fun."