Do you love cooking? Many of us do, yet hesitate to think we are good enough to enter a cooking contest and win. Yet there are hundreds of contests all over the world eager to receive your entries to their competitions. Cooking has surged in popularity, quickly evidenced by the number of cooking shows on television and the magazines and recipe books dedicated to showcasing new cooking techniques and ingredients. In the wake of this increased popularity, winning a recipe contest is closer to reality than you imagine since there are more contests today than ever before, and you can find contests geared to a variety of cooking techniques, ingredients and skill levels. Prizes regularly include cash, trips, new kitchens, cooking supplies, sponsor products and more, so it can be worth your time to enter and enjoy the benefits, both personal and financial.
Entering contests can be a natural extension of your everyday cooking and adds little time to that process once you learn a few simple steps to streamline how you create new recipes. The “How To Win Cooking Contests” e-book outlines how to create recipes quickly and easily on a daily or weekly basis. In addition to the practical tips in the book, focusing on the following areas can be helpful in order to get the most out of the cooking contest experience. Here we review the top five traits of competitors that can help you get started and win your first cooking contest!
5. Be Consistent: You can’t win a contest if you don’t enter! Consistency means entering contests regularly. Enter often! Don’t imagine that each recipe contest receives thousands of entries. Many small contests receive less than one hundred submissions, giving you very good odds of winning a prize. Being consistent also helps you note patterns in your contesting that will help you improve your entries over time. A little bit of consistent effort on your part can reap a veritable wealth of rewards. So, head to Google, type in “cooking contests” and see what contests are open for entries right now. Take action!
4. Focus on Quality: Focusing on quality means that you use the finest quality ingredients, the finest tools you can afford and the finest cooking skills obtained through practice to create a contest-winning entry. This focus on the “little things”, such as name-brand ingredients, good quality spices and sharp, precise knives makes a big impact on the final recipe you create. This focus on quality will help your recipe stand out from the rest because the recipe will be able to be replicated easily and you will know exactly how it will taste when a recipe contest judge recreates your entry in a test kitchen.
3. Know the Rules: Being familiar with the “Rules and Regulations” of a competition can also help you to become a culinary champion. Perhaps the most frustrating occurrence in culinary contesting is being disqualified for not following the rules. So, let’s start with the obvious. Be certain your recipe is unique and write the instructions to create the recipe yourself. DON’T copy another cook’s work. DON’T be a “front” for another person’s recipe because they themselves are ineligible to enter. To avoid disappointment, make sure to read the rules and regulations before you sign up for a competition and when developing your recipe. If you are invited to travel to an event, check the rules and regulations once again to confirm you are working within the boundaries of the competition. This focus on what’s allowed and not allowed will help you successfully develop an award-winning recipe.
2. Stay Positive: Maintaining a “Positive Mental Attitude” inside and out is an essential attribute to joining the Winner’s Circle. From the inner perspective, cook with love when crafting a recipe. That kind of positivity is intangible, yet energy sent out into the world with love may reap invisible rewards. If you’re invited to a contesting event, remaining outwardly in high spirits is beneficial when it comes to presenting your recipe to the judges and the audience, even if all is not going as smoothly as you would like at any given point in time. If you are showing a high degree of stress, you may not be able to communicate and answer questions with the same confidence as someone who is positive in their mental appearance. If you are having troubles, try to smile and maintain a calm center. When faced with an audience and judges, make sure to always smile, say “please” and “thank you”. This helps you exude confidence, even when you feel it eluding you on occasion.
1. Focus on the Flavors!: Finally, the top factor for winning a culinary competition is to make your food look, smell and Taste Delicious! Since there are many factors that contribute to winning a cooking contest, it is surprisingly easy to forget the most important factor, the taste of your recipe. Even with all the other elements you will need to pay attention to, taste is truly THE most powerful factor when it comes to winning. And remember, taste starts with the yes – by crafting a beautiful looking recipe, the eyes have prepared the taste buds to anticipate what’s to come! By consistently developing unique recipes, using quality ingredients and remaining organized at all times, you will find it easy to create a delicious recipe.
These top five factors for winning a cooking contest can help send you to the “Winner’s Circle”. With time and practice, these factors will become second nature when preparing entries to send into contests. Since the best competitors follow these practices, it is essential that you master all five traits. Soon enough, you will surely find yourself in the winner’s circle. Good luck and happy contesting!
