You're competing for fame and glory: We'll be shouting the winner's name from the rooftops! (And by rooftops, we mean featuring the winning recipe on our site and in one of our email newsletters—the winner will receive a $75 Food52 e-Gift Card too.) Remember, all contest finalists get prime placement in our recipe search and are always most likely to be featured.
Official Contest Rules
Here's How It Works:
- On July 15th, 2022 at 12:00 PM ET, Your Best Dish Disguised as a Sandwich will open for entries.
- You’ll have until August 15th, 2022 at 6:00 PM ET to submit your recipes (here’s how). We’re really excited about new recipes, but existing recipes can be submitted too.
- Our Recipe Contest Community Moderators, Megan Roberts-Satinsky, Suzanne DeBrango, and Marina Chotzinoff, will narrow down entries based on the Judging Criteria (see below), and we'll announce a list of 5 finalists on September 20th, 2022 at 12:00 PM ET here.
- The 5 recipe contenders will all be tested by the Recipe Contest Community Moderators. (We hope you'll test some of them at home in your own kitchen as well, so you'll be ready to vote.)
- After testing, the Recipe Contest Community Moderators will select 2 finalists. We’ll announce them here on October 1st, 2022 at 12:00 PM ET. Then we’ll open up voting. You'll have until October 8th, 2022 at 12:00 PM ET to check out the finalists, cook the recipes, and cast your vote on the site.
- The winner will be selected in accordance with the Judging Criteria and winner selection process (see below). We then announce the winner here on October 9th, 2022 at 12:00 PM ET and post a Q&A about the winning recipe within one week from the 9th. The winner gets to do a happy dance. Then on October 15th the whole cycle begins again with a new contest!
We'll end up with lots of new recipes—created by all of us—that we love!
Recipe Contest Rules:
- If a recipe is not chosen as a winner for one contest, you may resubmit the same recipe for a future contest. (For example, Mom's Mud Pie could be submitted for Your Best Dessert Recipe and later for Your Best Kid-Friendly Recipe).
- You may only vote once in each contest on the site, but you may vote for your own recipe.
- This is all in the spirit of good fun. If you comment on a recipe, please be respectful of the author. Here’s our Code of Conduct.
- If a contest theme involves alcohol (like Your Best Cocktail), you must be at least 21 years of age or older to enter. No alcohol purchase or any purchase is required.
- You may only submit recipes that are your own. If your recipe was inspired by another source, that's okay—just tell us how you changed it. We'd love for the inspiration behind your recipes to be part of the conversation. Plagiarism, however, is a definite don't. Here’s an example of an acceptably inspired recipe.
- Recipes cannot have previously won a contest or other promotion.
- Recipes must be in English. List all ingredients in common U.S. household measurements in order of use. Recipe cannot include ingredients that are considered illegal in any U.S state. Entries must be submitted by individuals, not by teams. The recipe and recipe name must not violate or infringe the rights of any third party, including but not limited to rights of copyright, trademark, publicity or privacy.
- By submitting an entry, you agree to abide by these Official Rules and all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations that govern the Contest as well as the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for our website, which you can find here and here. This contest is void where prohibited by law. This Contest is subject to all federal, state, and local laws and regulations. This contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States, including DC, aged 18 or older. You must be a registered user of the Food52 website to enter. Employees of the following entities and members of their families or households are not eligible for participation under any circumstances: Food52, any prize provider (as applicable), and their respective affiliates, printers, advertising and promotion agencies, or retailers as well as any persons, involved in the creation, development, or implementation of this contest; and any other persons or entities directly associated with this contest.
Want to know more? Here's the really fine print.
Entering a recipe in a Food52 contest grants Food52 the right and irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual license to use, publish, adapt, edit, and/or modify the recipe in any way, in whole or in part, and to use such recipe, and any ideas or concepts contained therein, in commerce and in any and all media now known or hereafter discovered, worldwide, without limitation or compensation or consideration to the entrant and without right of notice, review or approval of any such use of the recipe.
As applicable: acceptance of a prize will further constitute and signify the winner's agreement and consent that Food52, as well as any prize provider and/or sponsor ("Contest Entities"), may use the winner's name, photograph, images, likeness, voice, signature, biographical information, submission, recipe and/or any other intellectual property materials created or submitted as any part of the Contest, in addition to any and all materials created during public relations activities related to the Contest (collectively "Publicity Materials") for purposes of advertising, publicity and trade related to Food52's as well as any prize provider and/or sponsor's, products and/or services, in all media worldwide, without further compensation, and without geographic or time limitation, except where prohibited. All Publicity Materials developed or used will be Food52's property and will be works "made for hire" and each winner will retain no ownership rights whatsoever. If Publicity Materials are not considered works "made for hire," each winner hereby assigns all them to Food52. For certain contests, in order to receive the prize, Food52 may require your signature on documents that incorporate certain elements of these rules.
Food52 reserves the right to take such action as it deems necessary to enforce these Official Rules and ensure the fair operation of the Contest, including without limitation, barring and disqualifying entrants who do not comply with these Official Rules. If, for any reason, the Contest is not capable of running as planned by any cause which, in the sole opinion of Food52, corrupts or affects the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the Contest, or (as applicable) if due to any technical, production or other error, more prizes are claimed or awarded than are described in these Official Rules at any prize level, Food52 reserves the right, at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest and determine winners from entries received prior to action taken, or as otherwise deemed fair and equitable by Food52. No more than the number of prizes stated in these Official Rules will be awarded.
By entering the Contest, you voluntarily and knowingly completely and forever release, waive and discharge Contest Entities, and all related parties, from and against any and every kind of claim, demand, injury, costs, attorney fees, right, liability or cause of action or other liabilities of whatever kind or nature, known or unknown, absolute or contingent, and whether or not fixed, which you ever had, now has or might in the future have arising in any way or related to this Contest, including, but not limited to, participation in the Contest; your Contest Submission; use of your name, likeness, biographical information, signature, image or likeness; financial claims; physical and/or emotional injury; and/or any other legal claim that may arise, whether under contract, tort, warranty or any other theory or claim.
All disputes and questions regarding the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy, or concerning the rights and obligations of any participant and/or Contest Entities, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules or provisions that would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than New York. As a condition of participating, participants agree that any and all disputes which cannot be resolved between the parties, and causes of action arising out of or in connection with this Contest, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, exclusively before a court located in New York County, New York having jurisdiction. Further, in any such dispute, under no circumstances will participants be permitted to obtain awards for, and hereby waive all rights to claim punitive, incidental or consequential damages, including attorneys' fees, other than participant's actual out-of-pocket expenses (e.g. costs associated with entering), and participant further waives all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.
The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of these Official Rules shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision. If any provision of these Official Rules is determined to be invalid or otherwise unenforceable, these Official Rules shall be construed in accordance with their terms as if the invalid or unenforceable provision was not contained there.
Judging Criteria
ROUND 1 (DETERMINING TOP 5)
During Round 1, each recipe will be judged by the Recipe Contest Community Moderators according to the following criteria in equal measure:
- Relevance: relevance to contest theme and overall appeal of the recipe;
- Organization: whether the recipe is written well, including all steps, in an organized and reproducible way;
- Preparation: ease of preparation, whether the recipe is practical (e.g. does not require advanced technique or tools, or expensive, hard-to-source ingredients)
The top five (5) finalists in each category (the “finalist” or “finalists”) will be chosen based on the above Food52 Judging Criteria.
Each finalist will be notified by email on or around March 20th in accordance with the information provided at the time of entry.
ROUND 2 (DETERMINING TOP 2)
The final five recipes will be judged by the Recipe Contest Community Moderators according to the following criteria in equal measure:
- Taste and presentation: overall flavor, visual appeal;
- Creativity and inventiveness: originality, relevance to the theme
ROUND 3 (DETERMINING CONTEST WINNER)
After the top two are determined on April 1st, 2022 at 12:00 PM ET, the Food52 community will vote on these finalists through April 8th, 2022 at 12:00 PM ET. Look out for the announcement and voting instructions on this page! The contest winner will be determined as follows:
- Community vote: Food52 community votes on the two finalists
Food52 reserves the right, at our discretion, to disqualify or discount any entrant, image or vote connected to votes cast by unfair means.
Should there be any attempt to manipulate voting or winner selection process, Food52 reserves the right to select the winners, disqualify any votes, disqualify any entry, and take any other action it deems appropriate in order to conduct this Contest fairly and equitably. Entrants may not obtain votes in exchange for, or provide or benefit from, any inducement, vote exchange, vote farming, or any other material benefit, that artificially inflates an entrant's vote total, as determined by Food52 in its sole discretion.