Cooking for Contests

So, I am trying something new. I have decided to enter two cooking contests, one for Chicken of the Sea, and the Sutter Home Build a Better Burger. It's a lot more work than you might think. And, we have been living off burgers and tuna for a week !

I will share the recipes later (they are top secret for now), but I have a new admiration for the people I have watched on TV with these events. I cook a lot, but trying to come up with something new, unique, visually appealing that meets the other contest criteria is quite challenging.

I can tell you about the ideas that didn't make it. I tried a tuna pesto pasta, with sundried tomatoes and black olives. It tasted good, but was not very pretty to look at. I considered tweaking it, until I found a couple other items that were more successful

I also tried to make Asian tuna wraps. It seemed like a good idea, because I like the Asian chicken wraps we get at restaurants. But, the tuna did not taste so great with the Napa cabbage I had wrapped it in. It did, however, make a decent salad the next day, But definitely not contest worthy.

The burger was a hit on the first try, but will need some tweaking. Still another few days left of burger and tuna experimentation, and I will post the results !