The most important event in the State Fair of Texas Creative Arts Department’s Cooking Kitchen will occur on Sunday, October 18, 2009, in my humble opinion.  It’s the Bake for the Cure Baking Contest sponsored by Fleischmann’s Yeast to increase Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  There is no entry fee, and for every entry Fleischmann’s Yeast will donate $10 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  It also happens to be the last day of the 2009 State Fair of Texas. 

There are two categories:  one using any Fleischmann’s Yeast; and the second baking any batter bread with no kneading.  Contest rules can be found at www.bigtex.com under Creative Arts.  There are also several bread contests that day in the State Fair of Texas Cooking Kitchen.

 

Since last week’s column, I have entered five more State Fair of Texas Cooking Kitchen contests.  It has been a ton of fun and I’ve made a wonderful world of new friends.  First, there was the Cheese Contest on Tuesday, September 29, followed by the Guess What’s Cook’n Contest on Thursday, October 1.

 

I entered a cheese soup recipe in the Cheese competition and had a great time.

 

Entries consisted of:  22 Appetizers; 12 Soups; 18 Entrees; 18 Cheesecakes; and 11 Desserts Other Than Cheesecake.

 

Guess What’s Cook’n was a totally new experience for me.  Competition to get into this contest was extremely stiff I learned.  Only the first 16 entries received are allowed to compete, plus two alternates on standby, as that’s the number of ovens in the Contest Kitchen.  The waiting list was quite long I was told by a contest official.  There are two categories – savory and sweet.  You don’t know until you get there which one you will get.  So, you literally have to pack up your kitchen and transport it through the fair grounds.  That was the most challenging part of the contest for me. 

 

I got the savory category, thank goodness.  I can bake, but I need a recipe to start.  Ingredients for both categories were selected by Chef Michelle Rodarte, Dallas Central Market Cooking School Manager, since Central Market sponsored the contest.  There were eight identical sacks for each category filled with 20 items. 

 

Our mission was to make a dish using at least some of 10 of the ingredients within the allotted three hours.  If you didn’t finish in three hours, your dish would not be judged.  Your entry also had to include the recipe you invented.  I came up with an entrée using the pork tenderloin and many of the vegetables and herbs.  Asian entrées won first and second places.  Although I enjoyed the cooking part of this contest, it was definitely not fun getting my kitchen to the Creative Arts Building and back.  So, I’ll let some other lucky home cook enter this contest next year.

 

Monday, October 5, was the International Cuisine Contest with 14 categories.  Many of the contestants present said the turnout for this event was much smaller than in previous years.  There were 52 entrées entered in these categories:  three Spanish; three Soul; two Greek; four French; four Oriental; four Middle Eastern; five American Indian; three Czech/Slovakia/Polish; six German; four British Isles; three Jewish; four Cajun; and seven Italian. 

 

 

My Sausage Surprise entrée in the German category was judged last, which didn’t bring me any better luck than did being judged first in the All-American Casserole Contest.  The two judges at this table next moved to judging the British Isles category, followed by the Czech/Slovakia/Polish category and ending with the American Indian category.  A total of 18 dishes judged from four categories. 

 

 

Winners of each category were determined immediately following completion of judging of that single category.  Winning 1^st place in the German category was Lynda Sanders from Trophy Club, Texas, with her Reuben Braid.  It was her creation of everything in a Reuben Sandwich braided in a crescent roll instead of on bread.  I got a sample afterwards and found her entrée to be very creative as well as delicious.  Lynda’s Reuben Braid creation is the second from left on the first row in the first photo above.

 

If you’ll remember from last week’s column, Lynda also won 1^st place in the Chicken Casserole competition.  Lynda has been entering the cooking competition at the State Fair of Texas for 30 years and has won many awards.  She was also very helpful in sharing her wealth of knowledge about the cooking contests.

 

In the International Cuisine Contest, I learned that 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd places are not necessarily awarded in each category.  One category actually only received an Honorable Mention ribbon.  Of the 14 total categories places were awarded as follows:  12 1^st (blue) ribbons; 11 2^nd (red) ribbons; 7 3^rd (white) ribbons; and 3 honorable mention (yellow) ribbons.  The German category had winners in the top three places.  There is no Best of Show award in this contest. 

 

On Wednesday, October 7, I entered the Candy Contest.  The 14 categories had 119 total entries.  Quite a difference from the number of entries in the International Cuisine Contest.  Entries were as follows:  three Plain Chocolate Fudge; seven Chocolate Fudge with Additions; 10 Fudge Other than Chocolate; seven Divinity; eight Pralines; 10 Mints; 6 Nut Rolls; 14 Hand-dipped Chocolate Crème Center; nine Hand-dipped Chocolate Hard Center; 12 Nut Brittles; 12 Toffee; eight Peanut Patties; 10 Caramels; and three Truffles (any kind).

 

 

This event required five tables of judges with four judges at each table.  Judging went very quickly according to the experienced contestants sitting around me.  Candies were cut into small pieces and given to each judge to taste and score.  Again, winners in each category were determined as soon as judging was completed in that category.

 

 

After judging was completed, the 1^st place winner in each category was pulled from the table to be judged for Best of Show.  Many of us watching contestants went to see if our entry was still on the display table.  Some contestants are superstitious and don’t want to look or know.  I saw that my pralines didn’t make 1^st place.  Two of the contestants sitting by me were pulled in the Toffee and Pralines categories.     

 

All 20 judges were given small pieces of the 14 1^st place winners.  They only voted for the one they liked best.  Whichever one got the most votes was awarded Best of Show. 

 

Besides the 14 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place awards in each of the 14 categories, eight Honorable Mentions were awarded.  There was a three way tie for the Best of Show Award between the Toffee, Pralines and Truffles.  The tie was broken and awarded to Kate Rovner of Plano, Texas, for her Toffee entry.  She said she had been working for the honor of that beautiful purple ribbon for 17 years.  Next year she will not be eligible to enter the Candy Contest.

 

I finally got lucky and won the 3^rd place award in the Pralines Contest!  That means my Pralines recipe, along with all the other 1^st through 3^rd winners’ recipes in every contest, will be published in the next State Fair of Texas Prize Winning Recipes Cookbook.  I walked on air the rest of the day!  These contests are definitely in my Texas Longhorns burnt orange blood now.

 

 

On Friday, October 9, I entered The Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust Championship.  I’ll let you know about this contest in the next column.   

I hope to see y’all at the Bake for the Cure Baking Contest at the State Fair of Texas on Sunday, October 18.  Until next time…

 

 

Bon appétit!