How to Put Together a Cooking Contest

Cooking contests are a great way to get people to show up and cook lots of tasty food in a convivial atmosphere. Thankfully, hosting a cooking contest doesn't take too much work, since the burden is shared among all of your participants. Just follow these quick steps, and you'll be ready to run a cooking contest in no time.

Things You'll Need

• Paper cups
• Plastic forks
• Table(s) for contestants to set up on
• Electrical access (if needed for hot dishes)
• Judges or ballots

Instructions

1. Pick a type of food that your cooking contest will focus on. Cooking contests work best if contestants are cooking similar dishes, so you should be sure to narrow down the field. You can make the category as narrow as you like; you can run a contest for desserts, or just pies, or just apple pies. But while a chili cook-off will likely succeed, "Cook a dinner food" is generally too broad.

2. Set entry ground rules. For example, if your contest is restricted to pies, be sure to define what constitutes a pie. You'll need to decide whether you will allow savory pies (such as shepherd's pie), crustless pies, pies with a store-bought crust, etc. Be sure that you are very clear about what is allowable, because you do not want to disagree with someone after they have gone to the trouble of cooking something.

3. Select your judging method. Most cooking contests either have a small panel of judges who will give reasons for their selections, or a large number of tasters who cast votes for their favorite dishes. If you have a panel, you will want to have a judge's table. If you have a large number of tasters, you might want to create ballots.

4. Set up a long table upon which contestants can place their creations. If your contest includes dishes that need to be kept hot, be sure that the table is within reach of electric outlets so that heaters that require power can be accommodated. Assign each dish a number, and place a large stack of numbered paper cups next to each dish. (for example, paper cups marked 1 next to the first dish, paper cups marked 2 next to the second dish, etc.)

5. Serve the food. Servers should spoon a small portion of each dish into the corresponding numbered paper cup, and then hand those cups to the tasters. If you are using ballots, distribute those numbered ballots, so that tasters can vote for their favorite dish (or two).

6. Tally the votes after everyone has tasted all the food. If you are using ballots, you will want to double-check them to make sure you have the correct winner. If you have a panel, the judges should each make a public announcement of their favorites.

7. Reward your winner. Sometimes the prize will have been announced previously, and sometimes it can be a surprise. Either way, be sure that your winner is duly rewarded, as this makes the contest more fun and encourages more entrants next time.

Tips & Warnings

• Giving all participants a small gift is considered good form.