Cooking contests require a great deal of brainpower and creativity, not to mention flat-out hard work.  Most of us foodie contest junkies work alone in our laboratories (our kitchens), as we go from wheels turning in our heads to creating a new recipe that fits the contest guidelines to actually designing and making the recipes—oftentimes repeating the process several times because you have to refine not only the ingredients and amounts, but also execution and details such as how long to cook or bake on down to photographing your work. If it stopped there, most of us, and I’d venture to say 99% of us, would be delighted.  Happy.  Fulfilled. And ready to move to the next contest with gusto and excitement!

But in this new world of cooking contests, it doesn’t stop there.  Most contests are now requiring voting by the public.  This is not a huge issue if you’re on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ or ‘American Idol,’ but we aren’t.  We have limited platforms for garnering votes—our friends on Facebook, maybe sending out an email to our mailing list, and standing on the street wearing a sandwich sign…  Some contests base the actual ‘winner’ on the number of votes one receives.  Sure, I’ve won contests that way, but it doesn’t feel good to me.  Why?  It’s simply a popularity and begging contest.  It means I had a way to reach a lot of people, usually through Facebook, and I have doggedly asked for, no, ‘begged,’ for votes.

Before I began competing in cooking contests, the last time I’d asked for votes was back in my freshman year of college when I was running for freshman homecoming queen.  My sorority sisters and I handed out flyers, stood on the corners of busy campus intersections, stayed in the student union and worked incessantly like skilled politicians to get votes—we were close to the Tammany Hall gang!  It was then and is now exhausting.  It’s even more so ridiculously unfair in cooking contests because it doesn’t really showcase and select the best entry, but rather the recipe entry that gets the most votes, in my humble opinion.  Of course, we know why the sponsoring companies do this. It brings traffic their way and increases their brand exposure. We are working hard for them to be even more successful and profitable.

Sadly, even the most prestigious cooking contest of all time, the Pillsbury Bake-Off, has succumbed to requiring voting, which I think is such a shame because, again, if you’re in a voting group on Facebook and have a large following on social media, then you’re sure to secure a spot in the finalists. But if you’re not, and you’ve made it to the cut-off group of the category, then you could be toast, dead meat, wasted, dried up and probably won’t move on to the next round—and you very well could have the best recipe!  Another issue with voting is all of its irregularities like scamming and buying votes, amongst other mechanisms that can make the entire process unfair.

Please, for goodness sake, don’t think I’m all sour grapes.  Some of the fine print in contest guidelines say that while there is a voting period, the actual winner(s) will be selected by a judging panel based on various criteria.  That’s good. That fine print is important because that means you don’t have to wear yourself out scavenging for votes.  However, I’m convinced that the best cooking contests are those that don’t require a public vote.  These are the contests that I covet.  These are the contests that I look for to enter.  These are the contests that if I win, as in the Wisconsin Cheese ‘Grilled Cheese Academy,’ I feel like I truly have created a competitive recipe that’s been evaluated by professional chefs, and probably made by the chef(s) and tested in the sponsoring company’s kitchen.  That kind of contest evaluation is based on merit of skill, talent, creativity and culinary finesse… not on being a teenager back in high school or college trying to be the most liked, prettiest, funniest or whatever and having all your groupies vote for you.

At this point in my cooking-contest career, I’m carefully picking and choosing which contests I enter. I’m not going to wear out my friends and voting groups by continually asking them to vote.  It’s just not fair. Folks are busy and this voting takes time. I know I belong to a few voting groups on Facebook, and I faithfully support my friends.  I think there are a lot of other really talented home chefs that feel the same way I do. Alas, it’s ultimately the loss of the recipe contest world because these sponsoring companies hosting contests are losing some, no doubt, amazing recipes created by home chefs.  If you’re planning on entering a contest, make sure you read the fine print well. If there’s voting involved that leads to the winner, your work is only beginning! Just make sure the prize package is worth the effort, because you’ll be earning that prize with your sweat equity!

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