Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America

by Amy Sutherland

A tour of the country's competitive cooking circuit profiles the colorful personalities and events surrounding such contests as the Great Garlic Cook-Off, the World Champion Jambalaya Cooking Contest, and the Pillsbury Bake-Off. Reprint.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Foodie, Food Writing, Cooking, Cookbooks, Food and Drink

352 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2003

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plain and simple, Americans love competetion and Americans love food. Competetive cooking is a natural.

I'm actually not a Food Network watcher, but I may start. This book was fascinating. If you thought that cook-offs are for homemakers at the state fair, you are wrong. There are cooking competitions for the every-day home cook that have prizes worth thousand of dollars. Women who have high-profile, stressful jobs and Type A pesonalities turn to "contesting" as a semi-professional hobby and have kitchens filled with millions of dollars worth of prizes to show for their efforts.

The book is also a discussion of America's love of convenience foods. The author points out that we will spend hours upon hours commuting or watching television without batting an eye, but when Americans cook the food has to be ready in 30 minutes or less. These competitions, particularly the Pilsbury Bake Off, also rely on processed foods, and even the "light" entries are often not that healthy for you.

The contesters who enter dozens of competitions every year are constantly thinking of the mass appeal of a dish, assuming that's what the judges look for in a winning dish. Many believe spinach doesn't have family appeal, for instance. One entrant had to change the name of her dish from Morroccan Chicken to Couscous and Chicken because the judges didn't want a winning dish to sound so "ethnic." In a way, rather than broadening the minds of Americans, foodwise, these competitions dumb down food to the lowest common denominator.

But there's no coverup involved here. Everyone knows the point of these competitions is to sell more product. These competions are a cheap way for Pilsbury or the National Beef Council, or whichever corporation is sponsoring the event, to create recipe libraries without the upkeep of test kitchens. The kitchens of America are the test kitchens. And thousands of recipes are tested and mailed in every year.

I'm now considering Googling "cooking contests" and submitting a recipe or two. I can't eat any of the winning recipes that are published in the book. It would be nice to have a little gluten-free representation out there.

This review also published in my food blog:
http://stephaniefood.blogspot.com/

[Susan Bybee · Rating 5 out of 5]

My notes:

I love books about people obsessed with quirky stuff. I'm thinking Word Freak, American Bee, and now this one.

Surprisingly, the "big one" the Pillsbury Bake-off [insert trademark symbol] came off as a little blah.

The chili, BBQ and Jambalaya cookoffs are testosterone-soaked. The men get a little too high on their ego and hubris. This was also true in the other contests in which females were the primary competitors. Cautionary tale: Memphis in May BBQ guy who was the head of the "Airpork" team. He was allowed by his employers at the airport 1,600 per Memphis in May BBQ festival and they later found he'd been secretly siphoning off more -- like 90K. Hooray for the middle-school guy whose team ended up taking all the honors.

Jambalaya: I was surprised to learn that rice has a vertical seam, and that you should be able to see it if the rice is cooked properly.

Wow, State Fair people! Marathon cooking and baking sessions everyday for two weeks. Driving back and forth to the Iowa State Fair, entering up to 12 contests a day.

LOVE the obsessiveness: Diane Sparrow in search of one perfect chili pepper at Chicken National and Priscilla Yee weighing her oranges over and over at National Beef.

Tunnel of Fudge got 2nd place back in 1966 at Pillsbury, but her creation did wonders for both Pillsbury and Bundt cake pans!

History of contesting fun reading. Hints from the author about breaking into contesting. Fun fun book. Great summer read. Highly recommended.

[Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

2019 bk. 296. A fascinating look at the world of competitive cooking, the prizes recipes can earn, and the folks who regularly participate in these contests. Sutherland shows the world of competitive cooking from state fairs all the way of the chain to the Pillsbury Bake off. Along the way she visits some of the barbecue / grilling events that are mostly male focused, the events sponsored by towns to beef up tourism, and the company sponsored events. She interviews some of the people whose names appear frequently and gets into the minds of why people compete with recipes and how recipes are composed. In the end a fun look at a different sort of creative process. The book was published in 2003 - when I originally read it. Having found a copy at Half Price, I enjoyed reading again and was pleased with how fresh the book was - despite the frequent references to the time period (9/11 had just happened when she started researching) the book read as being very current.

[Jennifer Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was aware of cooking contests before reading this book, but I had no idea that people got so fired up about them. Sutherland spends a year going to these contests and meeting the people who enter them. The contests range from big-time events like the Pillsbury Bake-Off to smaller competitions like those held at state fairs. The entrants are also varied. Some enter on a lark, without thinking much about it, while there are others whose lives seem to revolve around cooking contests-- they devote huge amounts of time to these contests, enter scores or even dozens of events each year, and win vacations, kitchen appliances, and large sums of money.

This wasn't the single best-written book I've ever read, but it was interesting to learn about this weird subculture. There are a lot of interesting characters, some strange events, and winning recipes both tempting and horrifying. Worth a look.

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cookoff is a delightful book, well-researched and written in the breezy style of a newspaper feature writer, which Sutherland is. If you've ever toyed with the idea of entering a cookoff with the recipe your family and friends rave about, this is the book to read. It should turn you off doing that so fast it'll make your head spin.

There are amateur, but nearly professional, "contesters" who win nearly every competition, entering dozens a year. It's almost as though the field is fixed, although true amateurs do win occasionally. These women--and they're all white, middle-aged, women--live, eat, and breathe cookoffs. They've won tens of thousands of dollars in cash and prizes over the years, then hand the tradition down to family members when they're done. Didn't know that? Neither did I. Still, the draw of fun and excitement is enticing. Don't be surprised if, despite the odds, you find yourself sending in forty entries to the Pillsbury Cook-Off.

[Maria (Ri) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this one!! There are so many colorful characters in the "contesting" world of competitive cooking. I had no idea that this world even existed until reading this book. I enjoyed that the author appears to be from (or at least nearish) Cincinnati, my hometown! I loved reading about these contesters so much that I had to DVR several Food Network Challenge shows to see them in person. It was so wild to watch episodes of National Chicken and the Gilroy Garlic Festival on tv and see Roxanne Chan, Diane Sparrow, and Camilla Saulsbury! This book was so entertaining, it made me consider entering the competitive cooking circuit myself!!

[Sundry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess I already had a little recipe fever from reading Food & Booze, so when I saw this on the remainder table at Vroman’s I snatched it up. Now the puzzle is who to loan it to first?

I enjoyed it even more than I expected to. Amy Sutherland has a very personable way of writing. I like that she admitted that she got involved with the people and the contests.

There are a lot more cookoffs and recipe contests than I realized. And, yes, I’m thinking about entering one and trying for beginners luck. (Some people enter dozens of recipes for the million dollar Pillsbury Bakeoff prize!)

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read! Amy Sutherland traveled far and wide to experience Cook-offs in America. Fascinating yet light look at the whole different world of the cooking-obsessed. Is it the joy of cooking or the thrill of victory? Either way this book has me looking at the development of recipes in a whole new light. Never again will I look at a recipe without thinking of the person who might have developed it and did it win a contest or was it developed by company cooks to sell a product?
An easy read and perfect for the food lover.

[Lindquistheather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised that I really liked this book, but I did! It was one I would have never picked up on my own and didn't think I had any interest in the competetive cooking world, but I loved the author's style and how she drew me in. I found this whole new world of cook offs fascinating and ridiculous too, but it definitely was interesting. I found myself even rooting for certain people and loved that the author included some of the winning recipes (which of course I plan on trying for the book club this month!:)

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good read, and I loved learning about competitive cooking, which is totally insane. HOWEVER, it's not so well-written--I think all of the sections of the book were written as separate essays. She repeats weird pieces of info so much that I think it was unclear which section would go where. There are strange interludes with a couple of competitive cooks that don't really make any sense. So that's why, while the book is a great read and totally recommended, it doesn't get more stars.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author immerses herself in the world of competitive cooking, traveling with contestants to the big national contests: National Chicken, National Beef and the Pillsbury Bakeoff among them. She writes about each competition but also gets into the heads of the men and women who spend their lives trying to win them. It's a fascinating look at a national subculture. I found it utterly compelling.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

There haven't been enough food- and cooking-related books for my tastes lately, so I had to go back to 2003 for this one. It was so much better than I expected--all about the process of recipe creation, the people (a.k.a. "contesters") who enter cooking contests on a weekly basis, the rowdy chili cookoff circuit, and the evolution of America's relationship with processed foods and ethnic ingredients. Very enjoyable.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes you want to invent brownies. And therefore, you should not read while dieting! But I've seen the people Sutherland write about on the FoodNetwork challenges, and it's really much more interesting to watch the shows after you've read this book, and know the players and their recipe cook-off track records.

[Marjorie Elwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I'm fascinated by cooking, this book just didn't come together for me. I don't know if it's because the cookoffs themselves were so disparate, or the fact that I don't think the author explored the cooks as deeply as I would have liked. In any case, a fun read, but not what I was hoping for.

[Bethany Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really nice non-fiction book that anyone who enjoys cooking will like. It covers various cooking competitions around the country and tracks some of the people that seem to enter every single one of them. The book has a good overview of the competitions as well as background on the main people involved in the competition circuit.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good. I like little more than an ethnography. I knew nothing about the world of cooking competitions so this was a lot of fun to read. I admit to looking at recipe contest entry forms after reading this. I only looked though - I didn't enter anything!

[Jeannette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never really thought about cookoffs or the world of competitive baking and I don't think I ever want to again. This book wasn't engrossing, it didn't make me want to enter contests and I disliked almost every character in this book.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love reading about people passionate about something somewhat obscure. Who knew there were folks all around the US trying to win so many contests! This book reminded me of "Word Freak." So many obsessions, so little time!

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes of high-stakes cooking competitions? With hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, Amy Sutherland takes out to the world of cook-offs. It was eye-opening to learn that the community of "contesters" is surprisingly small and HIGHLY competitive.

[Susan Smythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun to read - odd topic -- one of those, "I didn't know people really took this that seriously" - but alot of fun - made me consider entering.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read, especially for anyone that enjoys The Food Network.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this book, I now have a new understanding of those ladies at our County Fair that make an entry for every food category and seem to live for that blue ribbon. Very enjoyable book!

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and interesting look at a phenomenon that's continuing to gain traction. Good character portraits, but every now and then the history gets a bit tedious.

[Arline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun amusing insights into cooking contests.

[Effie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for books about food lately. This one is about all those cookoffs being held in America each year.

[Demetra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a cookoff junkie so I loved it. However, I don't think it would hold much appeal to those who aren't so into cookoffs.

[Marshaferz · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you liked Word Freak, read this. Oddly compelling, and I found myself designing recipes in my head.

[Ladiibbug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-Fiction

Read 5 years ago. An eye opening and engrossing book about cooking competitions and contests.

[Janetpincher]

Recipes Club

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't care for the author's smug tone.