RENO, Nev. — Imagine sharing a favorite family recipe and winning $20,000 in the process.
That’s what the national beef cookoff is all about. Amateur cooks from across the United States are invited to enter beef recipes in what has become a huge promotional tool for the industry.
Becky Terry, past-president of the American National Cattlewomen’s Association, says her organization of 36,000 women have held the national cookoff for 20 years.
People enter and are judged at the state level. Of the 50 state winners,15 are selected as finalists. The top prize for the national winner is $20,000, second prize is $10,000 and third receives $5,000.
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This year’s contest was held in Cheyenne, Wyo., where the winner cooked up spicy beef with black bean salsa. The winner, Sylvia Harder of Nevada, entered in the fast and flavorful category with an easy recipe that takes 40 minutes to prepare.
Other winning recipes leaned heavily toward combining beef with salsa, beans or serving it up as a meal-sized salad. Calories and serving sizes also had to be mentioned.
All ingredients have to be easily found in local grocery stores. No recipe can take more than four hours total cooking and preparation time, said Terry.
During the cookoff event, chefs from hotels in Cheyenne selected their favorite seven recipes and served them as main entrees. Food editors from major American newspapers and magazines were invited and were paired off with a “beef buddy,” a producer who would talk about beef production and the lifestyle of rural people.
Terry says the contest has spread to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Mexico. Winners receive a trip to the U.S. where they show how beef is prepared in their culture.
Since the cookoff is considered as beef promotion, prize money and other expenses are covered with checkoff money collected through the Beef Industry Council and Beef Board, said Terry.
