Now that a winner has been chosen, I've noticed a lot of questions floating around about how the winning recipe is chosen. It's a good question that has many parts. We have to go all the way back to about a year ago when Pillsbury opened up the process for contest entries. The full rules and processes are available online at Yahoo!® Food. Below is an excerpt from those rules talking about the judging:
All entries must meet the requirements of the Recipe Category entered. Recipes not meeting contest entry criteria will be disqualified. Entries must be newly created and the original recipe of the contestant. Initial judging will be done by an independent judging agency and home economists for appropriate use of two or more different eligible products in addition to the criteria outlined below for the finalist recipes:
- Taste
- Appearance
- Creativity
- Consumer Appeal
Judges will disqualify previously published recipes, such as but not limited to those in cookbooks, in magazines, from food companies, on major food or recipe websites and winners in cooking contests, unless the recipe features changes considered significant by the judges. Finalists will be required to certify, on information or belief, that their recipes are their original creation and have not been published or publicized and have not won a cooking contest. Judges reserve the right to assign entries to the Recipe Category they deem appropriate. Final judging will be done by a panel of food experts. Decision of the judges is final in all matters relating to this Contest.
In essence, the "tens of thousands" of recipes entered were vetted and filtered down to the eventual set of 100 finalists that went to final judging in Dallas. Each qualifying entry had to use at least two of the "eligible products" appropriately, so each finalist recipe is going to contain some branded items from the contest sponsors. That not only makes sense from the standpoint of the businesses that pay for the contest (it's a million dollar prize, after all), but it helps make the recipes approachable for the average home cook by using stuff most anyone should be able to find at their local grocery store. The rules also talk about a "panel of food experts" which begs the question - who are these folks? Here's the list of the 9 queen/king-makers that were tasked with making the decision:
Andrea Astrachan - Vice President of Consumer Affairs, Stop & Shop Supermarket Company and Giant Food.
Linda Faus - FOODday Test Kitchen Director, The Oregonian
Karen Haram - Food and Wine Editor/Taste Editor, San Antonio Express-News
Diana McMillen - Senior Food Editor, Midwest Living
Angela Shelf Medearis - Cookbook Author, Producer and Host, The Kitchen Diva!
Beverly Mills - Syndicated Columnist and Cookbook Author, Desperation Dinners
Diane Stoneback - Food Editor, The Morning Call
Tanya Wenman Steel - Editor-in-Chief, Epicurious.com
Sue Zelickson - Food Reporter - WCCO Radio
These nine folks spent hours in the judges' chamber tasting, and re-tasting the 100 recipes to narrow down to the field of winners we got. As you can see, it's a diverse set of independent experts on food from around the country. Judging from their work, they take this stuff very seriously as the Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest-winning recipes often become icons in kitchens across the country. I tasted lots of great stuff at the contest, so I wouldn't want to have to choose from that field.