A million reasons to get in the kitchen

Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 2:12 am

1271383937 A million reasons to get in the kitchen With a pinch of intrigue, a generous dollop of creativity and fired up by fierce competition, the 44th Pillsbury Bake-Off brings the home cook Olympics to Orlando today.

The stakes are at a rolling boil. after finely sifting through tens of thousands of entries, Pillsbury will award one of these 100 finalists $1 million, plus a kitchen appliance package worth more than $10,000.

And you may never look at package of crescent dough quite the same way.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the contest, which is calling the new side-by-side Waldorf-Astoria Orlando and Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek hotel home base. four category winners (Breakfast & Brunches, Entertaining Appetizers, Dinner Made Easy and Sweet Treats) will be announced tonight. Then, in a first for the contest, the four finalists will be flown to Chicago to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show (4 p.m., WFTV-Channel 9) on Wednesday.

Fourteen years ago, Pillsbury added $1 million to the pot, forever changing the tone of national cooking competitions. but at its core, the competition is still about a single recipe. And the odds of winning are much better than Powerball, and online entries don't even set creative cooks back the price of a postage stamp anymore.

Betty Parham, editor of the Web site Recipecontests.com and home to Cooking Contest Central,said the Bake-Off is exciting because once the 100 finalists converge, "suddenly everyone thinks winning is possible.

"The truth is: It is possible," she said. "This is not a random pick like a lottery. if you think your dish can stand up to the judging, first-timers and experienced cooks have the same chances of winning."

Paromita Tomerlin of Flagler Beach watched the 43rd Bake-Off on television and was inspired to give it a try.

"I had never entered anything like this before," said Tomerlin, 33, who is among the four Florida finalists hoping to pocket some significant cash from the Doughboy & co. "I came up with a couple of recipes and sent them in and they chose the Apricot-Curry Chicken Sandwiches."

The recipe, which is in the "Dinner Made Easy" category, reflects her Indian heritage with earthy spices and a touch of sweetness.

The last time a Floridian walked away with a grand prize was in 1980 when Millicent Caplan of Tamarac won for a meatless Italian Zucchini Crescent Pie. In 1968, Phyllis Lidert of Fort Lauderdale took the top prize for her Buttercream Pound Cake and in 1964, Janis Boykin of Miami won for her Peacheesy Pie.

The Bake-Off is held every other year to give Pillsbury time to research each entry. Recipes are thoroughly scrutinized. those that don't include two or more different eligible products from a list of rotating 22 General Mills and sponsor items are discarded. Teams of home economists study the entries, culling out any that are familiar.

Eventually, about 1,000 entries are sent to the Bake-Off test kitchens in Minneapolis, Minn. there, the dishes are prepared, sampled and prepared again. Ultimately, 100 finalists are named.

With an unparalleled attention to detail, the Bake-Off has avoided the mistakes that plagued other contests. The National Chicken Cooking Contest suffered the embarrassment of a plagiarized recipe in 1991. after a culinary student pocketed the $25,000 grand prize, officials discovered her recipe had been published in Bon Appetit magazine by a prominent cookbook author.

Food Editor Heather McPherson can be reached at 407-420-5498 or hmcpherson@orlandosentinel.com.

How to enter cooking contests

•Study the rules to make sure your recipe uses the amount of the name-brand product or ingredient called for.

•Start with local contests where competition is less intense.

•Judges like topical recipes. keep abreast of current food and health trends and new ingredients.

•Make sure the ingredients are available nationally.

•Learn to write a clear, concise recipe. Measurements, cooking times and temperatures must be exact.

•The Web site recipecontests.com is a clearinghouse of cooking contests for the home cook

•Routinely check the Web sites of your favorite brands for contest updates

Source: Orlando Sentinel test kitchen

A million reasons to get in the kitchen

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