Do You Enter Cooking Contests?

[jennyema]

If so, care to share some details?

I entered 20 recipes in the Philly Cream Cheese Dip contest last August, but since no check has come inthe mail or delivered like the Publisher's Clearinghouse People, I assume that I did not win.

I also entered a Cooks Country magazine contest (they have one in every issue) for chicken soup. I entered my Thai Chicken Soup.

On the TV Food Network I saw a show about the National Chicken Contest and am trying to perfect a chicken recipe for that. I am working with both chicken stuffed with arugula and a yucatan chicken thingie.

[SizzlininIN]

No but I've thought about it.

[ironchef]

I've entered mainly culinary competitions, but only a few recipe contests. The difference is that for culinary competions, it's like Iron Chef style where you get a set of ingredients to use, you don't just send in a recipe and hope that the people testing the recipes will pull it off correctly.

I've done a couple of contests where you send in a recipe and they select which ones sound the most appealing and then you have to go in and prepare it yourself against the other contestants in different categories. For those types of contests one needs to find out and research who the judges are because for one of the contests I entered, almost every winner of every category used either cream cheese, sour cream, or a lot of mayo in their dishes. So depending on the demographic of the judges, your dish could be hit or miss.

[licia]

If one could win just for the recipe, that would be fine, but I wouldn't want to go somewhere and have to make it.

[biev]

I'm nothing special, I wouldn't have a chance in a serious competition. I won a cooking contest on a forum once, but it was just for fun. We had to shape the food in the forum's name. I think I made quiche.

We should have cooking contests on here, by showing pictures of what we made for dinner. We could only judge on the presentation, but still, it would be fun.

[jennyema]

Originally Posted by biev

I'm nothing special, I wouldn't have a chance in a serious competition. I won a cooking contest on a forum once, but it was just for fun. We had to shape the food in the forum's name. I think I made quiche.

We should have cooking contests on here, by showing pictures of what we made for dinner. We could only judge on the presentation, but still, it would be fun.

Yikes, some of my stuff looks a fright but tastes good!

That's an interesting idea, though.

[ironchef]

Originally Posted by biev

We should have cooking contests on here, by showing pictures of what we made for dinner. We could only judge on the presentation, but still, it would be fun.

That would be a fun idea, but everyone would have to use the same main ingredient, be it salmon, veal, etc.

[Constance]

I've often thought about sending recipes into Taste of Home, but never get around to it. Most of my cooking isn't really that original...what makes it good is the tasting and seasoning, and you can't really put that in a recipe.

[mudbug]

Food to me is not about competition. Yes, I like getting new ideas and new ways of doing things, but the important bottom line is about having a bunch of folks sitting around your table (or campfire, or whatever) chowing down on something that tastes good and gives you something to do with your hands while you are enjoying the fine company that has assembled.

[mudbug]

since I'm in the apologizing mode, I hope nobody thought I was putting down entering contests with my post above. what I meant was that contests are not for me. But you guys go ahead, and I'll be one of your biggest cheerleaders.