Customer Reviews

Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Before I read this book, I was only vaguely aware of the competitive cooking circuit. That is, I'd heard of the Pillbsbury Bakeoff, of course, and knew of chili contests. I had no idea there was a year-round series of national competitions, a la the PGA Tour or perhaps more appropriately, the Pro Bowling Tour.

The whole concept of a year on the competitive cooking circuit was a new one for me and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about it. Sutherland's reporter-style writing, lots of facts and descriptions, not too much analysis, really works. She examines the competitions, profiles some contestants, looks into the preparation for an event, discusses the history of cooking contests, and addresses the phenomenon of "contesters".

I have to agree with another reviewer that photos would have been a welcome addition to this book, the few on the jacket are great, but left me wanting more.

Apparently, cooking contests are uniquely American. According to Sutherland, "Through contests we embody the founding fathers' ideal... to make of ourselves what we can... Even if you are stuck in a dead-end job in a dead-end marriage on a dead-end street, in America you can rise above your station and reign supreme at the bowling alley or the dog show or the poker table."

Cookoff isn't really about cooking, it's about the competition.

Food writer Amy Sutherland has written a fascinating behind-the-scenes expose of cook offs and recipe contests. From the outside, such contests seem rather boring, with middle-aged housewives preparing grandma's handed-down recipes. However, much more is percolating under the surface!

Sutherland traveled around the country for over a year, attending cook offs and interviewing numerous contestants to write her book. She covers many of the biggest contests, such as the Pillsbury Bake-Off, as well as smaller ones, including State Fairs and chili cook offs. These cook offs, some of which have been around for decades, have become big business with huge purses and prizes, leading to increased drama. Sutherland details the cooking disasters, failed recipes, and occasional squabbles. Sutherland also paints a vibrant portrait of the cook-off regulars, who calls themselves "contesters." These contesters enter numerous cook offs, make many of the finals, and are absorbing to read about.

At the end of most chapters, she includes winning recipes from the contests she discusses - so don't flip ahead or the suspense will be ruined! The final chapter gives practical advice to readers about recipe contests and cook offs. After reading this book, I'm eager to enter a contest on my own. A most enjoyable book - highly recommended!

The best way to read this book is quickly, lightly, and without too big of a literary appetite. Ruth Reichl it's not - but it's an entertaining read nonetheless.

I found *Cook-Off* to be an amusing set of stories about a quirky, feel-good slice of Americana. The chapters read like a set of feature articles culled from the front page of the "Lifestyles" section of any small-town newspaper. The content is the main draw here: Sutherland makes a nice effort to draw together the disparate characters and dispersed narratives of this little-known cookery circuit. It's fun --wholesome, lighthearted fun.

And if the writing is at times amateurish, the syntax is frequently tortured, and the grammar and vocabulary shockingly off-the-mark... well, that's the downside to small-town newspaper-ish writing, I suppose.

One example:
"Only two people have won the International Chili Championship cookoff, the bigger of the two national chili cookoffs held in Terlingua, Texas, each year, twice in its long history."

Another example:
"Americans cross spatulas at approximately more than 1,300 such competitions annually.... Chili alone accounts for more than 750 cookoffs nationwide. In Texas alone a chilihead willing to travel...."

In Chapter 2 "alone" Sutherland gives us "approximately more than" 3 occasions per page to wince at her clunky sentences and poor grammar.

This would have been an excellent read if the book had attracted a better editor. As it is, it is an entertaining read - as long as you don't read too closely. The story is nice, such as it is. The writing is a distraction, but not so much of one that it stands in the way of getting to the meat of the cooks' narrative.

How can you not like a book that features a character like the mysterious Tunnel of Fudge woman? Amy Sutherland's wit and powers of observation make this a good read. Her exploration of a subculture obsessed with creating new recipes for various processed foods provides a fascinating look at who we are, how competitive we are, and how preoccupied we are with our quirky passions. Be it competitive cooking, golf, bingo, or skeet shooting, Americans love to win. Sutherland does a great job of showing us ourselves through this microcosm of American culture. A somewhat careless editing job is maddening, but ultimately, the author has researched and written an enjoyable, funny, and compassionate book.

I could not put this one down. It's hilarious, suspenseful, and surprisingly inspiring. Sutherland has written a book that's about more than competitive cooking...it's about competitive America, about the beauty of improvisation, and our sense that nothing--not even a drippy Tunnel of Fudge--is impossible. Sutherland introduces a fantastic parade of characters, as amusing as they are driven, as creative as they are kooky, and as truthfully and warmly rendered as I've read in any book anywhere. If you enjoyed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, or more recently, Wordfreak, you will love Cookoff. Highly, highly recommended.

What a marvelous mix of entertainment and information on an issue I knew nothing about! Sutherland's journalistic approach takes amazing and colorful twists and turns as it lays out the inner-workings of the cookoff circuit where the players range from highly entertaining to overly competitive and crabby. I found myself dying to meet the queen of the cookoff, Diane Sparrow and wanting to cry over Cindy Shmuelling's bittersweet story. If you are interested in what makes people tick, this book is for you. As with all books worth their salt, I relished each new chapter and felt sad when it was over!

Who knew! Leave it to Americans to making cooking a sport, one where the freshness of a garnish can make the difference between winnng the big bucks or not. Sutherland is an apt guide of this world of competitive cooks with all their quirks. This book is not just for foodies, but for anyone the least bit interested in American pop culture. The cooks are vivid and compelling. The food ingenious to appalling. Part travelogue, food history and culinary who-dunnit, Cookoff is a winner.

I enjoy watching cooking contests on the Food Network, so I was eager to read this book. Unfortunately, the book does not capture the excitement of seeing the cooks in living color or touch your heart when they talk about their lives in their own words. You can't see the frustration on their faces when the cookies crumble or their radiant joy when they win. Reading that somebody smiled or the tears flowed just isn't the same. Most of all, you can't see the FOOD. Many of these cookoffs have been shown on the Food Network or Public Television, and the experience of reading about them is a distant second.

Cookoff is pretty interesting, but did anyone proofread it? If you're at all aware of correct grammar, spelling, or usage, this book will drive you nuts. So far (I'm about halfway through) I've found proper names spelled two different ways in the same paragraph, common words that are misspelled, and turns of phrase that are just wrong (for example, someone is described as "flaunting" a convention).
If you're not someone who notices these things, it's a good read. If you are, it'll set your teeth on edge. Maybe someone will bother to run the spell-checker on it for the paperback edition...

A smokin' hot tip from Amazon's Best of 2003 list! This hilarious book recounts a year on the road with the hardcorps of the cookoff world, recipe-inventors who battle it out to win KitchenAid mixers and lottery-sized cash prizes. Big surprise: The, uh, quality of so many winning dishes. Big laughs: The teetering, white-knuckled, very-high drama of competition. Big warning: If you cook, you may find it impossible to resist entering the fray.