From dumplings to potato salad, red velvet cake, and pecan pie, declarations of who has the best fly around the South like a chicken with its head cut off. If you have ever attended a church picnic you know that “Bless Your Heart,” is the beginning of some serious trash talking. While some people cook for cash, it’s the bragging rights that we are looking for. Cook-off contestants put on their war faces to sauté the competition. Ask any purveyor of good comfort food and he or she will tell you the best is found only under their roof.
On game day, you may find your pastor’s wife trades her usual jovial smile for a serious poker face. She needs it. Because in her sport, victory usually comes down to mental toughness - and a secret ingredient. Amateur cooks are just as passionate and competitive about winning a local recipe contest as card sharks are about a hand of Texas Hold 'Em. We bow to the non-paid judges and are not immune to behind-the-kitchen drama.
On occasion, some even stoop to sabotage and playing head games if it gives them the competitive edge. And while most people assume it's little old ladies entering pickles in the county fair, today's cooking contests are serious competitions. And like a lottery, the odds of winning something are slim if you are going up against a 5-time blue-ribboned church elder with a legendary fried chicken recipe.
For some, success becomes a sort of addiction, and in the South, we have Recipe Fever. Cooking contests are a unique phenomenon as a result of our country's deep need to test ourselves against our neighbor while we measure, whisk and lick the bowl. It's a reflection of our strange relationship with food. We like to have fun but we want to be the champion more.
So go ahead and bake Aunt Betty’s famous Cherry Pie and enter it. At county fair time, you can walk proudly into the exhibit hall with your contingent of family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, Avon lady, newspaper carrier, insurance agent, and assorted members of the city council and board of supervisors, plus Aunt Betty if she is still alive. You’ll be saying “Looky over here! Y'all see what I made?” Be sure to bring along a sewing kit, in case any buttons pop off your blouse or pants.
And, you never know, a blue ribbon might be just the ticket if you're single and hoping to marry.
Prospective husband: “I”m thinking of proposing, but first, I want to know if you can cook.”
Prospective wife: “Cook? Well, Gall-lee Gee! Thank you for asking. Last year I won six blue ribbons at the Dixon Jubilee for my buns, bar cookies, banana muffins, cinnamon rolls, cheesecake, and carrot cake.”
Prospective husband, smiling happily with visions of carrot cake hopping around in his head “Honey, do you want an 8-carat or 10-carat ring?”
Remember when it comes to cooking, it’s about participation, not perfection. As long as you think your dish is good, you can still brag about it.
Blackberry Peach Crisp recipe @whatsgabycooking.
