VT's 2009 Chefs' Challenge

Calling All 2009 Culinary School Grads!

Vegetarian Times magazine’s second-annual “Chefs’ Challenge,” recipe contest is open to the 2009 graduating classes of America’s accredited cooking schools.

Our goal is to find the rising stars in this year’s crop of new chefs—the ones destined to become the restaurant owners, cookbook authors, and perhaps even the future TV celebrities who will inspire home cooks everywhere. We’re looking for chefs who can take their talent, skills, and classic culinary training and use them to create healthful, delicious vegetarian recipes.

“If you’re graduating this year, put your culinary skills and creativity to the test by coming up with a delicious, inspired vegetarian or vegan creation.

Five winning recipes will be chosen from among submissions in the following categories:

    Appetizer

    Soup

    Entrée

    Side Dish

    Dessert

Recipes will be judged on originality, taste, ease of preparation, and presentation (the recipes will be photographed for a national food magazine, so no bowls of brown mush … no matter how good they may taste!). Recipes are limited to no more than 10 readily available ingredients and should not require excessive preparation time or professional equipment. Any recipe including meat, poultry, or fish-based ingredients will be disqualified.

The Online Voting Process

Vegetarian Times editors and judges will select 15 recipe finalists (3 in each category). These finalist recipes will be posted on the Vegetarian Times Web site for readers to test, taste, and vote on. Online voting is open from August 1 to September 1, 2009.

Prizes

All winning recipes will be featured in the January 2010 issue of Vegetarian Times, along with profiles of the student chefs who created them.

The creator of the winning recipe in each category will win $300 cash.”

Winners will be notified on October 1, 2009.

To Enter

The contest is open to culinary students who have graduated or will graduate in 2009. The deadline for submissions is June 19, 2009.

Submit recipe entries via e-mail to chefschallenge@vegetariantimes.com using the following format (limit three recipes per person, each submitted in a separate e-mail).

Recipe category (specify appetizer, soup, entrée, side dish, or dessert)

Recipe name

Recipe ingredients (list in order used)

Recipe instructions

Name of culinary institution

Class/graduation date

Entrant’s name

E-mail address

Background information: a short paragraph on who you are, where your culinary interests lie and how you came up with the recipe you’re entering.