"cook-off" news and stories

The knives aren't tethered to the counters in your typical cooking competition.

But then again, the "Top Chef"-inspired cooking contest held at the Riker's Island prison in New York City on Tuesday wasn't your typical cook-off, the New York Post reported.

Inmates were given the chance to compete to show off a "behind-bars culinary arts program" whose goal is to use cooking to help them envision better lives for themselves, the paper reported.

"The object is to change these kids' lives -- not just to teach them cooking," Mark Sauerhoff, a cooking instructor who has worked with girls in the prison between the ages of 16 and 21 for 11 years, told the Post. There is also a group for over-21 would-be chefs.

The adult contestants made sautéed tilapia with lemon caper sauce while the teens served up barbecued salmon with ginger coleslaw. The competition ended in a tie.

The city of Eunice, La., will again host a crawfish étouffée cook-off this weekend, marking 25 consecutive years of failing to agree upon a single definition for the classic Cajun dish.

All comers are welcome to compete in the wildly popular event, whether they swear by – or swear at – butter, margarine, tomatoes, cream of mushroom soup, paprika, roux or pre-chopped onions. The liberal guidelines make for a diverse array of étouffées that annually lure eaters from across the South.

"We don't care what the judges think," Robin McGee, executive director of the Eunice Chamber of Commerce, says of the disparate preparation techniques. "We're too busy saying ours is the best."

Kyle Spencer, 23, and Xiao Yu, 24, are barely of drinking age and have been brewing beer for less than a year, but nonetheless wear their ambition, literally, on their sleeves.

"Brewing for a living is something we both wanted to do," says Spencer, promoting his nascent brand by wearing a gray, short-sleeved Beta Beer T-shirt alongside partner Xiao Yu. Despite his expert presentation, Spencer is nervous: For the first time his product will be tasted by "actual people who have beer backgrounds."

This kind of fledgling enthusiasm was par for the course at the Brooklyn Beer Experiment, a new cook-off in a city obsessed with cook-offs, part of the groundswell of our nation's craft-brewmania and a first from competitors turned co-organizers Theo Peck and Nick Suarez. "We were cook-off rivals," says Suarez, "and decided we could do this as well as anyone else could." Sunday afternoon at Brooklyn's the Bell House -- a space primarily used as a music venue -- more than 25 chefs infused their eats with beer, and local homebrewers like Spencer and Yu hawked their wares.

By Alexis Korman

Is lamb replacing bacon as the go-to fetish object for meat lovers? Recipes for the succulent spring meat have recently popped up on Seriously Good, Bitten and Market Manila, but lamb is also making an appearance on the competitive cook-off circuit.

This weekend, lamb was the star of New York City's Taste of Tribeca food festival, featured in an "Iron Chef"-style showdown between two well-known toques, "Top Chef" Season Five alum Leah Cohen (remembered not just for her cooking skills, but also for her scandalous make-out session with winner Hosea Rosenberg) and Austrian wunderkind Kurt Gutenbrunner of New Yorks Wallsé.

Read more about the heated competition after the jump.

Got a Prosecco cocktail that's the life of every party? Folks begging you for your Kosher kugel secrets? Sneak a few minutes while everyone around you is slogging through their post-holiday-feast comas and submit your best recipes. At stake -- trips, cash, kitchen gear, and culinary bragging rights for the rest of 2009. Break a ladle!

Are we missing any? Post 'em in the comments below.


Pillsbury's Make America Sweeter Contest

Boboli's Great American City Tour Pizza Recipe Contest

Tutti Foodie's Chocolate Adventure Contest

Pepperidge Farms's Puff Pastry to Paris Recipe Contest

Simply Manischewitz Cook-Off Contest

Mama Mary's Official Pizza Creations Recipe Contest

Mionetto Mixology Cocktails Contest

Jose Ole Coolest Mom Recipe Contest

4th Annual Hood Holiday Recipe Contest

Taste of Home America's Best-Loved Recipes Contest

Crisco Grilling Hall of Fame (Get the skinny from Marisa's earlier post.)

Paula Deen's Treasure Hunt

The Next Hungry Man Dinner