Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 19, 1994 TAG: 9401250264
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Almena Hughes
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Lynn Akers of Salem won $200 with her first cooking contest entry. Her third-place winning submission to the Delmarva Chicken Contest was a jazzed-up chicken salad. Akers said she was inspired to enter the contest on a whim because she liked experimenting with recipes; her salad had received compliments from people who had tasted it, and her husband, Steve, had previously entered the biannual contest and made it to the finals.
"He burned his noodles, though, and that put him out of the running. I've been rubbing it in ever since," Akers said.
Figuring she'd quit while ahead, she said she hasn't entered any more contests since her win in 1992. She said she learned a lot and met some nice people while competing, but also found the finals were stressful and competitive.
"Some people are really bent on winning. Some people make a living on cooking contests. That's all they do," she said.
Karen Martis knows a few things about earning a livelihood through cooking contests. The publisher and editor of the monthly Cooking Contest Chronicle newsletter has been competing for about 15 years. She said she got hooked after winning a $400 second prize from Campbell's Soup in the first contest she entered. Her largest prize was $4,000 won about nine years ago in a Thomas's English muffins contest. No matter which contest you enter, she said, several rules hold true:
Read the contest's rules thoroughly. "Some of them can be confusing," she warned. "But even the best recipe probably will be disqualified if the rules aren't followed exactly."
Try the recipe; don't just write it down. What sounds good on paper may not work in reality, Martis said.
Try to keep your ingredients list to under 12 items, including salt, pepper and water. Too many ingredients and steps look intimidating. Also try to use ingredients that are readily available.
Highlight the sponsor's product. Usually, the more of it you use, the better.
Give the recipe a creative but descriptive title to pique the judges' interest; and be neat, either typing or printing your entry.
Martis said that Southwest cuisine seems to be fading in popularity, but other ethnic cooking styles, especially Thai, are increasingly in vogue. Beans - particularly black beans - grains and vegetables are also the main ingredients in many recent winning recipes. Beyond the trends, judges generally look at a dish for its originality, appearance, taste, ease of preparation, cost and mass appeal.
Martis' 9-year-old monthly newsletter highlights major cooking events, prize-winning recipes and gives tips, guidelines, food trends and cookbook reviews. A one-year subscription is $19.95. Write P.O. Box 10792, Merrillville, Ind. 46411-0792.
Speaking of winners, what about this "Best" idea from the Winter 1994 Hammacher Schlemmer catalog: a self-contained, timer-controlled appliance that concurrently wakes you with an alarm, brews one to four cups of coffee, toasts one or two slices of bread, English muffins or bagels and cooks one or two perfect sunny-side-up eggs all within 10 minutes. Each function of the Welbilt Breakfast Express also operates independently. I wonder if the $399 appliance would consider marrying me?
What may be a winning trend is the recently reported increased sales of nonalcoholic beers. According to an official of Market Watch and Impact magazines, 1992 sales of NAs at the retail level were up 27 percent from the 1991 figures, with further rises predicted. This is attributed to a renewed concern among Americans over risks associated with drinking and driving and an increased consciousness about health, fitness and caloric intake. An official of the Stroh Brewery Company also thinks baby boomers, who grew up socializing over beer, long to continue their rituals but without the accompanying hangovers or impacts on health and girth. Stroh's new NA, the first in a clear bottle, joins domestic leaders O'Douls, Sharps, Cutter, Old Milwaukee, Pabst and Kingsbury as well as NA imports including St. Pauli Girl, Haake Beck, Royal Amber, Kaliber, Molson, Exel and Moussy.
And if you'd like some fresh, hot homemade bread with that NA beer, reader "AO" from Blacksburg, in response to the Shelf Life column of Dec. 22, wrote that "Bread Machine Magic" by Rehberg and Conway is a winning cookbook and that Red Star yeast is available in bulk "cheap" (two one-pound packages for about $3.50) at Sam's Club.
by CNB