Show off your chili cookoff contest online.
The excitement of a chili cookoff contest doesn't end when the chili is scooped into a judge's bowl. By planning ahead, you can capture the contest and use it in an online presentation to prepare for the next year's contest, advertise the contest to new registrants, and remember the event. Through various online tools, you can add searchable recipe databases, a photo slideshow and even let viewers know exactly what kind of heat situation they're getting themselves into before tasting the recipe.
Spice Threshold
When creating the online presentation for your chili contest, consider sorting recipes and entrants by their spice threshold. Ask chefs to rate their chili "hot factor" (consider creating a one-through-five chili pepper heat rating system), then add entrants to the online presentation starting with the most mild and working your way up through the "eat at your own risk" variety. If entrants don't know rate their chili recipes, review the ingredients looking for items such as jalapenos or hot sauce. Add a page separating each category of chili peppers from each other, describing the heat factors and comparing them to other similar foods such as buffalo wings or curries, so judges and other eaters will be able to prepare themselves.
Searchable Recipes
When compiling the entrants' recipes for your chili contest online presentation, consider creating an online searchable recipe databank. Ask each entrant to submit a list of ingredients used for their chili along with the recipe, then add ingredients into a large list to appear online. Viewers can hover their mouse cursors over a single ingredient, such as "jack cheese" or "red pepper" and then click to be taken to a list of chili contest recipes which use that ingredient. An added benefit of this will help people who have specific food allergies avoid tasting or replicating any of the chilis with ingredients they cannot eat.
Photo Slideshow
Capture the excitement of the chili cookoff with a photo slideshow of all entrants' submissions. Take pictures of the individual bowls of chili, judges tasting and the winners receiving their prizes. This may be used for the next year's online presentation, along with being a record of past events. Consider using a theme for the photographs, such as a scoop of each entrant's chili in the same bowl (washed out in between each picture); then create a photo slideshow, which will show the differences in each entrant's chili color, texture and thickness. Other options are to plant a small chili contest flag design into each contestant's bowl for the photo. That's a great way to advertise the contest.
Tags: chili contest, online presentation, chili cookoff, contest online, each entrant, their chili, your chili