Cooking Competitions
I entered my “Two Sons Salsa” in a cooking contest at last weekend’s Fire in the Park Chili Cook Off. I did it to see what t was like to take part in competitive cooking.
Newspaper food editors served as judges of the competitions or covered the competitions as news. The Pillsbury Bake-Off always included newspaper food editors as judges, and the Great American Cook-Off—a contest restricted to male contestants—also was judged by food editors. News from that particular contest ran in Sports Illustrated. Houston Chronicle food editor Ann Criswell judged several national cooking competitions, including the National Beef Cook-Off, the National Chicken Cooking Contest, and America’s Cookout Championship for men in Hawaii. Violet Faulkner of the Washington Post judged the same competitions.
Food editors also judged local pie and cake competitions, as well as state fair competitions. “I’ve helped distribute nigh into a million bucks judging recipe contests,” said Eleanor Ostman of the St. Paul Pioneer Press of the judging, which she described as “a fulfilling task, a huge responsibility and sometimes a very funny experience.” Ostman recalled a food editor judge who once awarded a first prize to an apple pie during a cherry pie contest because “All the cherry pies were so bad.”
Competitive cooking was not only women’s domain. Men and women both competed in the chili cook-off circuit. The initial chili cook-off was held in October 1952 at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas. It was the idea of Joe E. Connor as a way to promote his book With or Without Beans. Fifty-five cooks made chili that day with Mrs. F. G. Ventura taking home first prize. For many years, it was assumed that the first chili cook-off was in Terlingua, Texas, in 1967, but a newspaper clip clarified the original competition.
Learn more about these women and their judging in my book, The Food Section.
My salsa did not win but it was a fun experience. Above is the “Two Sons Salsa” recipe.
