Cooking Contests

Secrets For Winning Cooking Contests

Cooking contests are a fun way to see if everyone else likes your
recipes as much as your family does. Food and cookware companies
use cooking contests to promote their products, and the prizes are
well worth winning. Whether you enter a new recipe or a family
favorite in a cooking contest, whether your thing is barbeque or
dessert, you can find a cooking contest that appeals to you.

Healthy Cooking Contests

Everybody knows that good health and healthy eating are interrelated,
and healthy cooking contests encourage healthy eating. One example
of this type of contest is the healthy college cookbook contest, where
the winner gets their recipe published in a cookbook, gets a copy of
the cookbook, and a $25 cash prize if the recipe is one of the top 25.

Another healthy cooking contest is the Get Fresh With North
Carolina Sweet Potatoes Recipe Contest, which awards $500
prizes in each of four categories: soups, salads, sides, and sweets.

Dessert Cooking Contests

Who doesn't love dessert? If you make a mean pecan pie, a creative
coconut cake or a bodacious batch of cookies, a dessert contest is
your chance to shine. Hershey's Cocoa has sponsored a classic
cake-baking contest for the last twenty years. Cakes and frosting must
be made from scratch and must use Hershey's cocoa. Cash prizes are
offered for the winning entries, but the best prize is bragging rights for
winning this prestigious competition. The Annual Sesame Street Cookie
Baking Contest is another popular cooking contest. This one was
featured in the 1979 Cookie Monster Storybook and, according to
legend, the Cookie Monster is one of the judges of this fun cooking
contest.

Vegetarian Cooking Contests

Want to win an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii? Of course you do;
who wouldn't? The Blossoming Lotus restaurant in Kauai hosts a
contest called, "The Most Remarkable Vegan Recipe Contest In History.
"The winner of this cooking contest, which requires entrants to use a
recipe containing no animal products whatsoever, wins a one week trip
for two to Hawaii, all expenses paid. 

You can find contests to enter in magazines that specialize in food,
menus, and recipes. Enter local contests first, to build your confidence.
Local contests don't attract nearly as many entrants as nationwide
recipe contests. Once you have a few local contests under your belt,
go ahead and start entering national contests. 

Read food articles in magazines and newspapers to stay current on
trends, and incorporate those trends into recipes you submit for
contests. Examples of recipe contest trends are meals that can be
prepared quickly, low-fat meals, and meals with trendy ingredients,
like sundried tomatoes or figs.