Heat sweltered toward 100 degrees Sunday at the Spiedie Cooking Contest where 25 entrants tried their hands at creating the best spiedie in what was billed as a "revamped" contest.
Chairs lined the bracket shaped enclosing Sunday afternoon at the Backyard Chef Championship as contestants in categories of chicken, pork, lamb, and beef grilled their own iterations of spiedies at Otsiningo Park.
Contestants from North Carolina, Philadelphia, Nashville, Delaware, and of course local talent and some first time entrants gave the contest a sense of diversity. Waiving the entry fee seemed to help participation for the contest.
What might have been most significant for the contest however was the inclusion of two 12-year-olds.
"We also want to introduce [the Spiedie Cooking Contest] to a younger generation who will carry it through the years and make it a fun family event that is an important part of Spiedie Fest," Co-organizer of the contest Rick Dodd said prior to the contest.
"Cooking is in my family a lot, it's good to eat and its fun to explore," Andrew Chudacik, one of the younger contestants said after being interviewed at the conclusion of the contest after placing second in the chicken category.
More:'Hopefully we'll light a fire underneath people': Spiedie Fest cooking contest revived
What to know about 2022 Spiedie Fest: Schedule, concert tickets, balloon launches
The influence of the Broome County Culinary School was evident. If not through the prizes, through a large line of tents promoting the school and the courses they offer.
The grand prize did not disappoint. The shiny belt looked like it could have belonged to a champion in X-cite Wrestling, which was coincidentally going on across the park.
Hollie Malinovsky Isom, a 10-year participant of the contest, took home he best overall winner and winner of the best decorated station. She's made the trip up from North Carolina to compete in the contest for the past 10 years after growing up in Whitney Point.
She's won categories of the contest before, but said it felt good to be the overall champion.
"The previous times I've been, it seemed like a secondary part of the festival," Malinovski Isom said of the cooking contest. "This is what made spiedie fest back in the day. We were really excited for it this year. They did a good job promoting it."
More:Why this family travels from North Carolina to compete in the Spiedie Cooking Contest
The festival did have clunky moments. It was hard to be engaged as a spectator because there was no clear indication if you could try the spieides being cooked and weren't given indications on what they were being judged on. There was also around a 20 minute lull in the action where nobody knew what was going on and when the winners would be announced.
As for crowd interaction, it was tough to gauge. At the beginning of the contest it seemed that more people were walking past than engaging. That could be due to the black spectator seats being unbearable to sit on.
However, when the winners were being announced, you could see festival goers start trickling in under nearby tents and by the time Malinovski Isom was announced as the overall winner, there was a good amount of people that seemed like they were interested.
While a little discombobulated at times, the Backyard Chef Championship set a precedent for a revitalization of the contest for years to come.
A representative from the Binghamton Rumble Ponies won the celebrity cooking contest.
https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/local/2022/08/07/spiedie-fest-2022-cooking-contest-hollie-malinovsky-isom-wins-backyard-chef-championship/65394753007/
2022-08-07 22:53:18Z
CAIiEExF_cRE5FIX_Hde5h4zuJIqGQgEKhAIACoHCAow-IGACzCvxIsDMNL59gU
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Spiedie Cooking Contest sets precedent for future, woman travels 600 miles to win title - Pressconnects"
Post a Comment