RSS
Home
How to throw a throwdown
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Alicia comes prepared with a burger AND an outfit.
Just because there's no holiday in sight (until the fourth of July) doesn't mean it's not time for a good theme party. One of my favorites is the "throwdown." Taken from Bobby Flay's show of the same name, a throwdown is simply a cooking competition - the kind that's good-natured but highly spirited. Trash talk encouraged.
Our friends Alicia and Mike spent last Friday night throwing down with Alicia's family, at their lake house in New York. The theme: burgers. The criteria: taste, appearance and ingredients. The winners: Alicia's "Insider" with toppings on the inside (for taste), her mom's "Hot Hawaiian" (for appearance) and Mike's "Benedict Burger" complete with fried egg and hollandaise (for ingredients).
To plan a throwdown that, like theirs, is fun, lively and competitive, there are a few rules:
- The team: First, you need the right group - participants who will take the competition seriously, but not too seriously. No cook-off is worth starting a decades-long family feud. The group should be smallish - teams of two or up to 7 or 8 individuals - and teams should be evenly divided.
- The timing: It's important to have enough lead-time to make plans. A really good throwdown needs at least 2-3 weeks of planning.
- The rules: Categories, criteria and instructions need to be clear and written down. Before starting, everybody needs to know what they'll be judged on. It's also helpful to set some restrictions or standards. For example, at last week's burger throwdown, all the participants had to use 80/20 ground beef. Makes it fair.
- The judging: The judges themselves might be outsiders, or they could be the participants themselves (yes, everybody will rate their own product the highest. But that'll all wash out.) Make some sheets to help record points. Include the criteria to keep it fresh in the judges' minds. And don't be afraid to be funny.
- The prizes: Bragging rights alone are great, but prizes make everything better. Hit the dollar store, discount DVD bins, the $1 section of Target. Everything's a prize when you look at it in the right light.
Most importantly, have fun! In a good throwdown, even the losers are winners.
Related Articles:
Comments
