Posted by The Daily Press, VA on November 12, 2008 at 10:48:02:
Recipe contest tips
November 12, 2008
Johanna Hahn, a Newport News resident and a 14-year veteran of cooking contests, has won her share of prizes over the years.
Her most recent win, in the Corona Fiesta de Flavor salsa contest, netted her a three-day trip for two to Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda Resort, Riviera Maya, in Mexico.
In the past she's won sums ranging from $50 to $1,000, a label with her recipe on a commercial spaghetti sauce, as well as the December page in a Patrick Henry Mall calendar contest for her pot roast.
She passes along these tips for being successful in recipe contests:
• Read the rules and follow the instructions
• Make sure you qualify (for example, food professionals may be restricted)
• Be creative
• Everybody loves chocolate (i.e., don't enter a fruit cake if someone else is offering chocolate chips)
Contest tips
• Think a little outside the box; Johanna Hahn cites using a really spicy spaghetti sauce in one contest requiring the basic sauce; and in a canned vegetable contest she put a twist on her entry by selecting sweet potatoes and making an apple and pork chop casserole
• Be willing to make substitutions in tried-and-true recipes
• It's not necessary to invent a recipe from scratch; if you already have a great chili recipe and you're entering a contest sponsored, for example, by Hunt's, then use their product in your existing recipe.
Be true to the dish; if you're making butter cookies, use butter (not margarine)
Hahn enters around a dozen contests a year. She learns about them in a variety of ways, from friends, online and the Food Network. She doesn't pay to enter contests, but occasionally when they're product-centered they require sending proof of purchase of a particular ingredient.
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