It’s never occurred to me to enter any of my recipes in cooking contests, but people are doing this all the time. Some of them have won big. For instance, Laura Stensberg of Marshfield, MN won $10,000 for her peanut butter truffle tart.

The largest pay-out for an amateur cooking contest is $1 million for Pillsbury’s Bake-Off. National Chicken and Southern Living come in second with their $100,000 prize give-aways.

A quick search, using the keywords cooking contests, pulled up several sites.

Cooking Contest Central: You’ll have to pay a membership to access their recipes and forum. However, visitors can look through the contest archives to get an idea of the contests that are out there.

One such contest caught my eye and made me smile: Cooks Country Kitchen Disasters. I just might enter that one.

2006 Recipe Contests is a free directory of Food Shows, Festivals & Fairs worldwide.

Whatever your cooking specialty is, you’re sure to find a contest out there for it. Good luck!