Contest Strategy
I have a hard time coming up with recipes that are truly "original" -- it seems like everything's been done before. Winning (or at least being a finalist) sure gets me wanting to enter more though!
Positive feedback is great motivation to continue working at things we find difficult. People always talk about people that are self motivated. I think that many of us can get over the difficult part of just getting started, but without ways to
measure progress it's near impossible to keep up the will to finish a task.
It's really no different with cooking contests. I think that is a very under-discussed reason
mom's enter cooking contests. Cooking comes with the territory - we have to do it to take care of our families and if those families are large - we do a lot of it. And, all too often, our families take our talents for granted. When you get third party feedback - anything from pot luck socials to the bigger arena of a cooking contest - it validates that not only are we "good" at what we do, but
other people know it. We have
proof that we've exceed the "requirements" of just cooking for the family; we've been "told" we excel at the task. Cooking contests are like extra credit assignments and when we're acknowledged for the effort, we swell up just like we did as kids when we came home and taped that "A+" project up on the refrigerator for both mom AND dad to notice.
Enjoy your time as a finalist!! You deserve it.
I'm interested in how other people come up with their recipes. Do you change up old recipes? How do you think of new things? Do you use recipe websites and/or previous winning entries for inspiration? Do you make a recipe over and over to get it perfect, or just do it once and send it in?
For me, I keep a file sorted by month the content ends. I look through the file often and re-read the print outs and my handwritten notes about the contest. I get inspiration from so many places, and by keeping a large number of contests in the folder and on my brain, I can often pair up a good idea with a particular contest. Then I have to do the work to get an idea to turn into a workable recipe.
I'm a real type A personality, so I do the recipe many times, under different conditions before I put it on my blog or send it in for a contest. But that is just me. I have a real fear of having others make the recipe as written and having them waste their time, effort and money on something that doesn't work out the way it should. If I put my name on it it means I'm giving someone my personal assurance that it's good.
My challenge is that I often think in terms of master recipes - the basic concepts that can be made in many different ways. The other challenge is that I don't work from recipes and haven't in many years. I have so many committed to memory and I cook based on what I have on hand or what looked good at the market. I'll make substitutions on the fly based on my knowledge of flavor profiles. Writing down a recipe as I work is a major PIA and they need to be written down in order to send them in - LOL
Finally, the Contadina contest that I'm a finalist in has a voting portion for determining the winners (it's a portion of your score). Is it appropriate to post it here in case anyone would like to vote for me?
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Heather -
You are now part of a community - if you don't send us the link - shame on you!!! We are here to share and support one another.
Send us that link, so we can vote for you! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stacy
