If you’re a cook, a culinary student or just someone who loves to cook, then you should really give recipe contests a go. These are contests that allow cooks and food enthusiasts to share their finest dishes to further their cooking status and earn some cash along the way.
Apart from cooking contests, there are other ways to share your cooking expertise with the world and that is through food surveys.
If you desire to win these contests and give your dishes some legitimate notoriety, we can help you do that with this article. Just follow these crucial and effective strategies and you’ll boost your culinary skills to new heights:
1. Go Through the Rules Carefully
Every contest has a specific set of rules that isn’t exactly the same as the other. For example, some contests might not only allow you to use a special ingredient but that it’s only sold by one company or brand in particular.
There may also be some rules that restrict the use of certain ingredients, cooking methods, measurements, and other details. More importantly, the rules will tell you about the judging criteria about how winners are selected. Therefore, if you want to have the best chances of winning, you need to follow these rules to the letter or you might get disqualified.
2. Know Your Competition
Another way to increase your chances of winning is to know who you’re going up against in a recipe contest. If you’re likely to face past winners or contestants, then you should take the time to do some research about their involvement in the last couple of contests and how they win the whole thing.
Find out if the winners clinched their victory due to a special ingredient or the base recipe. Perhaps it could have been because of simplicity or maybe a theme. There are also people who post recipes of their winning dishes. Once you have an understanding about how other chefs approach certain foods or recipes, you can get some ideas on how to do so with your own recipes.
3. Be As Creative As Possible
Contests are all about uniqueness, so it’s best to approach your recipe with as much creativity as you possibly can. Don’t be afraid to be innovative with your dish, as long as its both appealing and above all, delectable and satisfying.
Experiment with numerous renditions of your dish using different recipes, but make sure that it fits the theme of the contest. Also, be sure to go for something unorthodox while at the same time, adhering to the judging criteria.
4. Make it Simple
Seeing as how we told you to be as creative as possible with your dish, this point may seem contradictory – but there’s a good reason behind it. A simple dish that’s easy to make and on the eyes for the judges and the audience, is one that will be more appealing to the average consumer than one that is complex. The same goes for the types of ingredients that are used for your recipe. Dishes with simpler recipes are more favorable to amateur cooks and therefore, have a better chance of being chosen as the winner.5. Get Feedback on Your Dish
You don’t know whether the judges will like your dish or not. So what do you do? Instead of panicking, you should enlist the aid of your friends and family members to try out your dish and get their feedback on it. The more people you have trying your recipe, the more insight you will get on whether you need to improve it or not.
6. Bonus
Even if you don’t win a recipe survey, there are many restaurants and shops offer free gifts and giveaways to anyone to participate in their surveys. Some of the finest online survey sites and apps that do so include:
- SurveyMonkey
- SurveyPlanet
- SurveyH
- LimeSurvey
- QuickTapSurvey