Cooking Contest

I am not entirely sure what possessed me to google "cooking contests" today. I guess I was a little bit bored. But I did find some interesting sites that listed lots and lots of cooking and recipe contests of various kinds. Many were sponsored by some food company.

I was surprised, however, to find a contest devoted to using zucchini in something other than bread. People who grow zucchini do need things to do with it as I mentioned in my earlier post about zucchini bread. That site also featured a contest for using fresh herbs and one for cookies. The basic idea of that site was about contests for recipes using natural ingredients. There was another sponsored by an organic brand of salad greens, even. But there was also a contest for "good food products" and in describing what they meant they talked about products that were made sustainably. These are called "the Good Food Awards."

This is something I find encouraging. Normally when I think cooking contest I think of the good old-fashioned Pillsbury Bake-Off, which is still a main stay of cooking contests. More and more Americans are likely also thinking of shows like Top Chef and Food Network's Next Cooking Star as cooking contests. But there are still county fairs and chili cook-offs. And they do provide an outlet for people to actually cook which I think is a good thing. Now, granted, some that are sponsored by a food company encourage using weird processed food ingredients (like the one that requires you to use Cheez-Whiz, I kid you not) and some of the winning recipes sound downright dreadful to me. Some are more about saving money or cooking quickly. But they are all, after all, about cooking.

The more people cook, the more I expect that they will search out quality ingredients and start thinking about how those ingredients get to them. this is how we work to change, ever so slowly, the way people eat and they way they appreciate food. This is part of being a responsible eater--knowing how to prepare food for one's self and others. We have to be willing to know a food's history and cooking is part of that.

So far I haven't found entered any contests, but there is one for recipes made with mushrooms and I do have a killer pasta sauce made with mushrooms as the main ingredient, but on this hot evening it is hard to think about pasta sauce.

The more of us who can cook for ourselves (and I mean more than reheat) is a good thing. Watching cooking shows on television should be inspiration not just entertainment. I think I am starting to be inspired to enter that cooking contest after all.