The judges absolutely do not know who made what. During the judging the judges don't know the names of finalists much less the towns or even whether the finalists were male or female. At the Bays judging when the scores were tallied up, the judges were quite surprised that the first and second place winners were both men. The judges and the finalists don't meet until a banquet when the winners are announced.This illustrates that some effort is made to keep the judges and finalists apart until after the judging. There was a reception for the finalists at the hotel on the first day before the judging and I mistakenly got hold of the activities list for the finalists instead of the judges. Thinking I should be at this reception at 4 p.m., I got all spiffed up and strolled down to the suite where the reception was being held. When I walked into the suite, I was greeted by some very strange expressions and was escorted out in about 5 seconds by sweet Kelly Gibson a Bays executive who gently explained that I was in the wrong place.

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Where did the actual judging take place and how was it conducted?

The judging took place at the International Institute of Food. The judges were taken into a conference room and seated around a big table. The finalists arrived earlier and were in the back in the test kitchens preparing their dishes. The dishes were brought out one at a time. It took the judges about 10 to 15 minutes for each dish.

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Do the judges use the same judging criteria that are listed in the rules for entry?

Yes. Each judge is given three pieces of paper. One has the name of the dish and the recipe exactly as it was submitted by the contestant. Another has the criteria and places to mark from 1 to 10 by each one. And one has the official rules of the contest.

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Who were the judges? Were they professional chefs?

The judges were primarily food writers and editors and included: Lezli Bitterman, Chicago Sun Times; Rozanne Gold, editor of 1-2-3 Menu Cookbook; Jennifer Aaronson, Womens World; Many Ann Svec, Good Housekeeping; Judy Walker, Arizona Republic and Molly Woulfe, Copley News Service and yours truly from Cooking Contest Central (I also write an internet food columm for the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

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Does Bays itself have any input in the judging process?

 

Bays, of course, selects the finalists but the judging is done by the judges except if there is a tie. Then the judges get to talk about their votes with Bays but the final judging in a tie is done by Bays.

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I am curious about the recipe entries themselves. How do they get narrowed down? Are all of the recipes made or do they go through them and remove ones that don't sound good?

The winnowing process is quite interesting. First, all the Bays entries were sent to the Food Institute. There were about 2,300. The first ones to be eliminated are the ones that don't follow the official contest rules. I don't know the exact number but a good chunk were not even condsidered because they didn't follow the rules. So if you think its not important to pay attention to those rules, think again. Not following the rules eliminates alot of good recipes. The entries that are left are gone over by the professionals at the Food Institute who winnow the number down to about 100 recipes which are then sent to Bays. Then the folks at Bays go over these and pick about 40. These are sent back to the Food Instutute who go over them yet again. They pick about 24 and these are finally tested in the kitchens. These are then judged by the Food Instutute using the same criteria that is used in the final judging and they send the top 12 to 16 over to Bays. More testing and more judging finally gets to the six finalists.

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Is it important to 'showcase' the muffin itself? I know some years they allowed a lot of cubed, ground, etc. muffins. Do they want anyone who thinks they're going to try the recipe to KNOW its a muffin?

Unless the criteria for judging says specifically that you should showcase the muffin, I don't think it would make any difference. If you've come up with a great recipe using a cubed muffin instead of using it in the standard way I certainly don't think that would be held against you, except, of course, if that was specified otherwise in the criteria. Another buzzword I would look for in the criteria is "creative" which would probably mean you could use the product in unusual ways.

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How important is presentation? I know this is one of the contests that is open to both amateurs and professionals ....so just curious.

Presentation is very important. Even if presentation or appearance is not mentioned in the official judging criteria you should assume that presentation can be critical. Just think if you were a judge and out came this dish that looked like it was dropped off a 10 story building. Lets just say it wouldn't help. Its a matter of getting the judges attention in a postive way. Something that was just average might do better in overall scoring if it was presented in a very attractive way. And in a close contest, presentation may be what puts your dish over the top. It is probably a good idea to look at different food magazines and cookbooks to get some hints from professional food stylists and photographers.

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Did all the judges agree? Was there a runaway winner?

Not at all. Although we were advised not to discuss our scores when the judging was being done we did talk after the votes were collected. I was surprised at the differing opinions of almost everyone. Some judges thought a particular offering was great and others thought the same thing was not so great. It all came down to the scores, which I understand were pretty close. There was even a tie for I believe, third place.

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Were you given any advice on how to score before the judging?

No, just that we had to judge each of the criteria from 1 to 10. I was very conservative and didn't give any 10s at all. Yet I noticed that another judge' s score sheet had a whole bunch of 10s.

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Since you were a judge are there any tips you can pass on to contestants from your experience?

Here's something you may find helpful: There were two offerings that had ingredients that most of the judges thought would be hard to get or never heard of at all. One ingredient was cranberry chutney. I had never heard of it and thought when I saw it on the recipe it would require yet another recipe to make. We later found out from the finalist that cranberry chutney was available at her local supermarket.
Another ingredient in one of the offerings which puzzled some of the judges was pickled onions. What kind of pickled onions? Pearl onions? Onion relish? It was not clear in the recipe. Because both of these recipes may have lost points because of the questions about ingredients it is smart to be very specific.

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Was it mentioned what type of category they would have for next year's contest?

According to Mary Chan, a Bays spokeswoman, the category for next years contest has not yet been decided. Look for the next contest in December.

 

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Other than presentation and taste is there any other single most important detail in the recipe that won the contest?

You have all heard the expression "there is no accounting for taste" - well that truly applies to the judging of a cooking contest. After a certain point, if you have followed the rules (which is probably the most important thing you can do) worked out a good recipe and submitted it, about all you can do is just sit back and wait. You never know what will catch the eye or the tastebuds of any one judge. Alot of it is just good luck. Of the six finalists that were judged for Bays, I would say any one of them with a few points either way could have been the big winner.