food network contests

food network contests are amazing. if you've never seen one, you should try to catch one of the dessert ones. huge sculptures of colored sugar or chocolate are assembled from hundreds of hand made pieces. of course these are so fragile that sometimes they break during transport from the assembly table to the judging table. i just love to watch the creations however, such an explosion of creativity and skill.

this weekend was a bunch of record breaking contests. ice cream scooping, oyster shucking, pumpkin carving, onion peeling and pancake making. it's amazing the amount of stamina and speed that's required. one marathon runner was having problems with a 1hr pancake making contest. the rules are so specific - min measurements, requirements, etc. i wonder how many of such food related records were broken since food network started? i'll bet all the old record breakers don't like it. haha. afterall, if you worked so hard to shuck 33 oysters in a minute, do you really want someone to break your record so you have to do it all over again?

interesting factoid - a lady who was doing the onion peeling contest was on some onion committee. her family was on an onion a day diet. haha. stinky family!