Record Number of Recipes

By: Dagmar Farr, Senior Vice President, Member Services, Food Marketing Institute

Last Saturday was the recipe entry deadline for the 2015 Supermarket Chef Showdown. As the premiere culinary competition for supermarket chefs, the Showdown, held at FMI Connect, has been a popular opportunity for supermarket chefs to show off their skills since FMI first hosted the competition in 2012. This year the Showdown is more popular than ever.

We received more recipe entries than ever before! Ninety-five supermarket chefs representing 25  retail banners submitted close to 300 recipe entries this year—295 recipes to be exact! If you’re keeping track, that’s 127 percent more recipe entries than 2014.

So what’s next for these recipe entries? The top entries in each recipe category will be evaluated by McCormick test kitchens to determine the fifteen Supermarket Chef Showdown finalists who will compete live on center stage at FMI Connect this June at McCormick Place. The Grand Prize winner will receive an expense-paid trip for two to the fabulous Italian Culinary Institute in Calabria, and five additional recipe category winners will receive a $1,000 cash prize.

Stay tuned as we announce the finalists and get to know our supermarket chefs better. And a big thank you to our 2015 Supermarket Chef Showdown sponsors: McCormick & Company, Campbell Soup Company, The Hershey Company, Hillshire Brands Company, Mondelez International, The Pictsweet Company and The J.M. Smucker Company. Ingredients for the 2015 Supermarket Chef Showdown are generously donated by Roundy's Supermarkets, Inc. Visit www.supermarketchefshowdown.com for more details.