Solve & Share
  • Home
  • Professional Projects
    • For You
    • For Families
    • For Free >
      • Free Books for Libraries
      • Free Magnets
      • Kitchen Scorecard
    • -------------
    • For School Lunches
    • For Workplace Wellness
    • For Grocery Shoppers
    • For Restaurant Lovers
  • About

                                   Solve & Share



The Cooking Psychology of How to Win Cooking Contests

5/23/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
Yesterday’s cooking contests used to be 4-H cookie bake-offs at the county fair.  Today’s cooking contests have Iron chefs being broadcast globally on TV specials.  Tomorrow’s cooking contests will be an Olympic sport.  An apron-wearing Betty Crocker look-alike will run into Olympic stadium with the Olympic torch.  As she reaches the pinnacle and reaches the torch out to light the Olympic flame, it will be in the shape of a large grill that signals the beginning of the Hamburger Cook-off event.
 
To watch the crazy number of cooking competition TV shows or read the crazy number of websites on cooking contests, you might come away with the idea that winning a cooking contest is all about the recipe and ingredients.  Not so.  If you think this, you’re cooking with one hand tied behind your back.  
 
The best cook doesn’t always win, and the best recipe doesn’t always win.  If you understand what the judges are going through as they taste and judge, you can use three teaspoons of psychology to increase the chance that you Bring Home the Gold.
 
Most cooking competitions and bake-offs and recipe contests don’t have Bobby Flay or French chefs judging them. Most have either a judging panel of amateur cooks, or they are judged by popular vote.  In either of the last two cases, the judges are trying all – or at least many – of the entries.  This means that they are starting to get a little bored and the entries are starting to taste an awful lot the same.  Here’s what you can do.
 
Use Taste Contrast.  After tasting eleven versions of the same pasta, sensory-specific satiety sets in, and pasta starts tasting monotonous.  You win by making your recipe stand out in contrast from the others, and you win by having contrast – taste contrast and texture contrast – within your own recipe.  A chili that stands out by adding some steak chunks along with the hamburger, has a taste contrast compared to other chilis.  One that uses onion that’s cut into large long pieces (instead of diced), makes every bite stand out in contrast to the next.
 
Use Visual Contrast. At Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, they say “You taste first with your eyes.”  If it looks great, the judges are thinking it’s going to taste great.  By including colorful or high contrasting colors or shapes, it makes it look less boring compared the previous 11 things they just tried.  The pasta recipe that uses with two kinds or pasta, black olive slices, two types of meat, and a broiler-browned top is going to look a lot more award-winning than the 11 family recipe spaghettis they just tasted.
 
Give it the Right Name.  Tables full of eating psychology research show that you taste what you expect you’ll taste. If someone says something is sweet, you start focusing on what’s sweet about the food.  If they say something is creamy, it seems to taste creamier to you.  You can make your Olympic entry look good by having it in a nice dish and making it look great (using contrast like browning, parsley, or whatever).  You can also give it a name that evokes what you want people to taste.  Calling your favorite dessert entry “Sugar Cookies” won’t be doing you a favor, but calling them “Vanilla Sugar Cookies” (because you put a drop of vanilla in the recipe) just raised the Las Vegas betting average that you’ll place higher in the sugar cookie race. ​

If you’re interested in how this might look in action.  Here’s an example.  There was a Casserole Cook-off at our mini-country fair this week.  Being from the Midwest, I love casseroles.  We were going to go to the fair that Saturday to ride on carnival rides, and my daughters said, “You should make something for the casserole contest.’
 
Step 1. Grab Ingredients. I took a basic boring crab casserole recipe off the internet, and defrosted about $3 worth of fake crab meat from the freezer.  I grabbed other stuff from the cupboards that would give it taste contrast or visual contrast.
 
Step 2. Add Taste Contrast.  I figured the judges would be eating lots of casseroles with pasta, rice, or potatoes as the starch.  I wanted to this to stand out a different.  I substituted soft bread cubes and sliced hard-boiled eggs instead of the pasta.  Then I put a cup of celery in it gave each bite taste contrast.  I would have sautéed garlic, but I didn’t think of it until I was backing out of the garage.
 
Step 3. Add Visual Contrast.  Sliced black olives – in the shape of rings – would have it some nice contrast.  Not everyone likes black olives, but they would be worth the risk.  I also finished the casserole off under the broiler to brown it for contrast.
 
Step 4. Give it the Right Name.  Instead of calling it Crab Casserole, I called it “Crab-a-gonza Casserole” which was silly given that there’s no actual crab in the recipe.  To take the silliness over the top, I put a little crab icon next to the name, and printed out a color name plate, in case they put the descriptions in front of entry (which they ended up doing).
 
Step 5.  Collect Your Prize.  This prize was larger than the first kitchen I had.  
 
 
There are a lot of other ideas you can use, but these will get you started on your journey to bring home the gold.  If you’re looking for ideas that work well for names or how to turn your comfort foods into cash and prizes, I’ve included the links to some scientific articles – including one called “Engineering Comfort Foods.”  [They are a bit detailed and boring, so don’t read them while driving or operating heavy machinery.]

​




Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Welcome!

    Here are some tips, tricks, and secrets on how you and your family can eat to be healthier and happier.  They're based on ​over 30 years of our published research.

    Fun Interviews

    Picture
    Picture
    Russian "Slim by Design"
    Picture
    Music & Mindless Eating

    Most Visited Last Month


    Picture

    Top Downloads 

    • Kitchen Makeover
    • Smarter Lunchrooms
    • Smarter Lunchroom Scorecard
    • Grocery Shopping Hacks
    • Restaurant Secrets
    • Write a Useful Syllabus
    • Workplace Wellness Tips
    ​• Healthy Profitable Menus


    Categories

    All
    Be Happier
    Be Meaningfully Connected
    Be More Effective
    [Classic Eating Insights]


    RSS Feed


    ​• For You
    • Smarter Lunchrooms​​
    • 
    The X'Plozionz Band
    ​• Help your family
    ​• Kitchen Scorecard
    ​• Retracted papers
    • Grocery secrets ​
    ​​• Do kids inherit taste?
    ​
    • Be healthier at work
    ​• How not to retire
    • Estimating calories
    • Restaurant Secrets
    ​
    ​​• Syllabus template

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018

Home

For You

For Families

For School Lunches


    Sign up for updates and for upcoming chapters of a new book and memoir

Keep me posted
Copyright © 2025
  • Home
  • Professional Projects
    • For You
    • For Families
    • For Free >
      • Free Books for Libraries
      • Free Magnets
      • Kitchen Scorecard
    • -------------
    • For School Lunches
    • For Workplace Wellness
    • For Grocery Shoppers
    • For Restaurant Lovers
  • About