"competition" news and stories

Competitive eaters v. Ringling Bros. elephants. Photos: Getty Images

Man versus beast. That age-old test of wills is being revived once more, and this time it's about who can pack down more hot-dog buns.

As a prelude to the annual hot-dog eating contest at Coney Island, three professional eaters will go up against three Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey elephants on July 3 in Brooklyn, N.Y., an organizer confirmed to Slashfood.

"The animal kingdom in general is oppressed -- many would say -- by the dominance of the human species, and if they were to win this battle, in a way it could signal a rise of the animals," George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating, tells Slashfood. "Or at the very least, a confidence booster."

Get the details on this pachyderm pack down after the jump.

As one of New York City's most well-appointed concert venues, the Highline Ballroom gets its share of long lines. But the 180 people milling outside its entrance yesterday afternoon hadn't come for the music. They'd come for the soy.

Soy doesn't exactly scream "ruthless fight to the finish," or summon images of a marauding vegetarians. Yet the stakes at the first-ever Tofu Takedown were high enough to inspire even committed bacon lovers to attend the spirited competition, which was organized by Matt Timms, the hungry genius behind the chili, salsa, fondue, cookie and bacon takedowns.

Seventeen amateur cooks gathered in the ballroom to battle it out for tofu supremacy with entries that ranged from so-called "Ethiopian empanadas" to salted caramel tofu gelato. Somewhat surprisingly, sweet far outnumbered savory, demonstrating just how far tofu has come in its role as an ingredient for dessert.

What did you do to mark Victory Day this year? Well, some members of the US Navy and the Russian naval force got together for a friendly sandwhich competition. According to the BBC, sailors from the USS Stetham, which is visiting the Russian port of Vladivostok, battled their Russian colleagues in a tasty challenge.

Turns out a Russian won for best tasting sandwhich, while an American won for most creative presentation. More importantly, everyone got a welcome party with traditional Russian food and vodka. The American winner got a bottle of vodka and handed out USS Stetham hats and sweatshirts.

Designboom, a mod blog devoted to the latest and greatest in product design, recently came out with the winners of its 2006 Dining in 2015 contest. The challenge was exactly as it sounds: to design a food-related product that would be useful in 2015 at work, in travel, or at home.

Chefs and designers from Italy and Japan judged the entires and came up with the top three and an honorable mention.

Let's start from the bottom and work up. The honorable mention [ed. note: shown in photo] was an eco-friendly solution to dinner prep: silicone and nylon triangle-shaped buckets that allow the cook to boil three different foods all in one pot, thereby saving energy, time, and water. I totally expect it to be selling out on QVC in no time.

Third place? A creative ceramic salt and pepper shaker that forces you to physically break open the canister to access the spices inside. The goal of the project? There isn't any, really, but we bet it's really, really fun to break open. Save it for a day when you're really pissed off at someone, and then smash away. (But don't get carried away - - then you'll just have a mess of salt, pepper, and white ceramic shards to clean up).

Source

If you're a bread geek you know that the Baking World Cup is just around the corner. Properly known as the Coupe De Monde De Boulangerie, this is the Olympics of the baking world. It takes place every three years in Paris at the European exhibition, a major world bread, pastry, and catering expo. This time around it's scheduled for March 30 through April 1, 2008.

Started in 1992, the Baking World Cup gives the three competitors -- from twelve teams -- eight hours to make from scratch all of their breads. The each teammate is responsible for a specific category; baguette and specialty breads, vienoisserie (which is all of the croissant and puff pastry type breads), and artistic design (this person is spends the day making a showpiece from bread). This year there is an additional category called savory selection which requires that all three teammates work together to create a selection of savory rolls, pastries, and small sandwiches.

The Bread Bakers Guild of America sponsors Team USA at the Baking World Cup. It holds a series of competitions to find its next set of team members every three years, choosing the next team just before the current team competes. This gives the team three years to prepare. The members of Team USA competing in 2008 are Dara Reimers in artistic expression, Solveig Tofte in Baguette/Specialty breads, and Peter Yuen in Vienoisserie. Go Team USA!

Source