"cook off" news and stories

First things first: are you a beef eater? Do you like to cook? If you answered "yes" to both questions, you might want to consider entering your best recipe in the 27th National Beef Cook-off. The Cook-Off is put on by the Cattlemen's Beef Board to promote beef and seek out new, inventive recipes.

There are four categories in which to enter and the contest is focusing on health and nourishment this year, as opposed to over-the-top indulgence. The categories are Dynamic New Dishes, Nuevo Latino, Small Plates, Big Taste and Kids in the Kitchen. The final category is open to parent/child teams (five of which are guaranteed to make the finals.

The contest is open only to amateur chefs - home cooks - who want to compete for a $50,000 grand prize for the "Best of Beef" recipe of the year. An additional $60,000 in prizes will be given out at the showcase in September in Chicago, so as long as you make it into the top 25 finalists, you have a good shot at going home with something in addition to a bunch of great new recipes. The deadline for entry is March 31st.

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Up and coming chef Ben Sargent had just been given his very own half hour Food Network TV show--all about him and chowder, his specialty. With the sun barely up one morning in May, cameras followed him around the Fulton Fish Market. He stocked up on monkfish, live eels, and giant clams that looked like tubular aliens. The work was scrutinizing, but the last day on camera promised to be easy: a Brooklyn waterfront party where he cooked and his friends gnoshed. Like the cameras weren't even there.

The day arrived. Sargent happily and somewhat drunkenly prepared his chowder. He looked up, and Bobby Flay stood in the audience--the fiery haired Iron Chef, no less. Suddenly, Flay was on him, shaking his hand and challenging him to a chowder cook-off, right then and there.

This wasn't Sargent's show at all. This was Food Network's Throwdown with Bobby Flay and he'd just been had.