What is Cook of the Year?

Food has always been at the heart of Canadian Living. And we have always understood the importance of home cooking as a basis for family life, a support of heritage and culture, and even pleasure and memory making - the true spirit of Canadian Living.

Canadian Living’s Cook of the Year contest is a way for us to acknowledge the expertise among Canadian non-professional cooks, celebrate Canadian Living as a principal resource for the ‘home cook’ and promote Canadian food and the pleasure of entertaining at home.

This Year's Challenge

Create one 6- to 8-serving main-dish recipe that you would prepare for an evening of casual entertaining. The catch? We want you to create a recipe that features Canadian ingredients and fits into a budget of about $100 or less.

How it works

Submit your original recipe to Canadian Living Magazine in one of these four categories:

• Meat and Game
• Poultry and Game Birds
• Fish and Shellfish
• Vegetarian

Our Test Kitchen will choose the top four recipes in each category. From these 16, we’ll select the four category winners, who will fly to Toronto to compete in a cook-off in The Canadian Living Test Kitchen on July 17, 2009, where the Cook of the Year will be chosen by a panel of food professionals. The finalists will have their photos and recipes published in the November 2009 issue of Canadian Living Magazine.

Video:

Click anywhere below to watch the Cook of the Year 2008 final cook-off at Canadian Living!

How to write a good recipe: Quality counts!

Imagine that you, the recipe writer, are standing beside the person who is going to cook your dish. How that person cooks the dish depends on how you write the recipe. So start by make a rough outline, noting the order of the steps. Then, when you've figured out the order, begin by assembling the ingredients and describing the method.

Ingredients

• List ingredients in order of use.
• If more than one ingredient is used at the same time, list the larger ingredient first; e.g., 1/2 cup (125 mL) sour cream before 1/4 cup (50 mL) milk.
• If dry and wet ingredients go in at the same time and are the same amount, list the dry before the wet.
• Keep measurements to amounts corresponding to dry and liquid measuring cups and spoons, avoiding awkward measurements, such as 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp (125 mL plus 15 mL)
• Measure dry ingredients, such as granulated sugar and all-purpose flour, in dry measuring cups, also known as "dry measures." These are nesting metal or plastic cups.
• Measure liquid ingredients, such as milk or water, in liquid measuring cups, which are see-through glass or plastic cups with a spout and space between top measurement and rim.

Method

• Describe each step as if your cooking partner did not have you there to tell her how to proceed.
• Use verbs that describe accurately what's happening as your dish cooks; e.g., simmer and braise rather than simply cook.
• Let cooks know whether your saucepan is covered or not, and where in the oven your dish is roasting.
• Tell cooks what utensils and cookware you're using: a bowl, a skillet or immersion blender, for example.
• Share cooking clues. Describe the thickness of the sauce, the colour of the caramelized onions, or the fragrance of the spices.
• Give cooks the approximate time it takes to beat something, or to braise, steam or sauté it.
• Let cooks know what temperature or heat you are using.
• Include make-ahead tips throughout and at the end of the recipe, if applicable.
• Tell cooks how they will know something is done. Is the outside crisp, do the juices run clear?
• Don't forget to include the number of servings the recipe yields.

Tips

• Garnishes are important
• If you have a great tip, remember to add it to the end of the recipe or in the lead.