Posted by Deseret News, UT on November 09, 2009 at 15:07:39:
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Nov. 9, 2009
Rachel Ray Raises ire of cooking contestants
Valerie Phillips
Rachel Ray's annual Burger Bash contest has hit a nerve with experienced cooking contestants.
This year's rules disqualify anyone who is a "serial recipe contest entrant" from entering a burger recipe and possibly winning an appearance on the Rachael Ray Show, among other prizes.
I've covered recipe contests for years, and I've met a number of home cooks -- many of them from Utah -- who enter them almost as an amateur sport. They research trends and ingredients, create and test recipes, subscribe to Web sites that alert them to upcoming contests, and they become pals with fellow competitors. Sometimes a Pillsbury Bake-off can seem like Old Home Week with these "frequent finalists" renewing friendships from past competitions.
The apparent snubbing of these cooks has sparked some lively discussions last week on the forum of Cooking Contest Central, a Web site that lists upcoming contests and offers tips for entering (www.recipecontests.com).
Some said they were insulted at the "serial" term. One poster wrote that it was, "branding us with a disgusting term that is most often used to describe rapists, con artists, murderers, bombers, and the like!!!"
Betty Parham, who operates the Cooking Contest Central site, said she's never seen another recipe contest with a similar rule. Last year she was told it was to discourage people who send in the same recipe over and over to numerous contests. This year, when Parham inquired about the rule, she was told, "In keeping with the spirit of the contest, we're trying to encourage amateur cooks rather than professional recipe developers -- including those people on the recipe contest circuit."
It happens that the first Burger Bash winner was Erin Mylroie of St. George, with her Salsa Verde Turkey Burgers. Mylroie has been to the Pillsbury Bake-off , the National Chicken Cooking Contest, the Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Challenge, and the National Beef Cook-Off, to name a few. The 2008 Burger Bash winner was Jamie Miller, a Minnesotan who has also been a perennial finalist in many cooking contests. Surely both women would be considered part of the "recipe contest circuit," if there really is such a thing.
Some CCC posters, such as this one, vowed to cancel their subscriptions to Ray's magazine: "I am serious about serially censoring RR and her serially serial shows and magazine. Her whole schtick has been portraying an everyday girl, preparing easy food for everyday living and it has made her serially successful. It's quite amazing she (cause even if she's removed from the actual rule writing, the buck stops at her EVO bottle ... she is responsible for PR fall out) is willing to malign everyday home cooks who mostly cook exactly like her. No, I take that back. We cook BETTER than her. Seriously."
I can see why RR's people wouldn't want recipes that have been entered over and over again in other contests. And I can see why professional cooks and food writers can't enter, as they make a living developing recipes and are acquainted with potential judges.
But, for most home cooks, entering contests is a hobby, not a profession. Most prizes aren't enough to quit your day job, except for the Pillsbury Bake-Off's million dollars.
And just because a person enters lots of contests doesn't mean they will win. Experience may help them get to the finals, but I've seen a lot of winners who were first-timers, too.
Parham shared part of an e-mail that she's sending to the Burger Bash organizers that says: "The vast majority of our members are most definitely not professional recipe developers, but passionate home cooks who cook for their families on a daily basis. They have taken what many people consider a chore and made it into a fulfilling, creative hobby only made better by the competition involved.
"... Frankly, I think the rule is totally ill-conceived and could be considered insulting to the tens of thousands of home cooks who are passionate about cooking and creating recipes and get great satisfaction out of putting their recipes up to be judged against others."
Have you entered cooking contests before? Do you think it's fair to exclude "frequent finalists?"
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