re: Anybody Cooking in the Jambalaya Fest Cookoff?

quote:

---

Are there crazy rules for this cookoff or something?

---

yes

No sausage or pork
No pre-mixed seasonings or sauces
Very strict on what vegetables you can use
Bone-in chicken is the only protein permitted.

The purpose for these strict rules is to increase the difficulty of producing a tasty jambalaya and thus make the contest more competitive. However, it results in a vastly inferior product for someone who actually wants to eat it.

How the festival works is the big pot competitions all use these rules, and the contents of the big pots are sold as plate lunches.

While some of the really talented cooks will be able to make something that still tastes pretty good, most of the batches will suck, so it's a complete crapshoot whether or not you will be buying something delicious or something terrible.

If you didn't know any better, you'll likely buy some of that chicken jambalaya, hate it, and leave the fest thinking that jambalaya is terrible. Thankfully, they also have pork and sausage jambalaya available for sale, but you have to ask for it, and it's more expensive. However, the pork and sausage is typically far more flavorful, so it's worth the extra cost and hunting for it if it's not available at the same location as the chicken jambalaya.

On the flip side, the minipot cookoff rules are much much more lax, and are more or less "anything goes" as far as what actually makes it into the pot (although kitchen bouquet is still banned).