The 2015 Eat Drink Blog writing competition is more exciting than ever and we have some fabulous prizes thanks to the generosity of our sponsors!

ABOUT THE COMPETITION

The competition comprises three categories:

• Recipe writing award
• Restaurant review writing award
• Food narrative writing award

Before entering, please take the time to read and understand the Terms and Conditions and Eligibility Criteria.

The competition opens on Monday 3 August at 8pm. Entries must be submitted by Friday 18th September at 11.59pm.  Winners will be announced at the Eat Drink Blog conference dinner in Canberra on Saturday 17 October.

THE PRIZES

Thanks to the awesome generosity of our sponsors – Baker’s Secret, CorningWare, OXO, The Essential Ingredient Canberra and Capital Wines – we have a range of wonderful prizes for the winners.

Firstly, from The Essential Ingredient Canberra, each of the category winners will receive a set of mini copper saucepans (7cm, 9cm, 12cm) valued at $161.95. The pans comprise polished 3mm-thick copper with stainless steel lining and brass handle. With even heat distribution and instant reaction to temperature change, these are perfect for kitchen-to-table cooking, and suitable for all cooking surfaces (except induction).

Secondly, from Capital Wines, the award-winning Canberra district wine company, each of the category winners will receive a selection of wines.

Recipe writing category – Baker’s Secret prize pack

 The winner of the recipe writing award will also receive a Baker’s Secret prize pack.

Baker’s Secret, the original non-stick bakeware, is giving you the chance to win a set of baking essentials valued at over $215. The prize pack includes everything you need to bake up a storm, including three muffin pans, cookie pan, cookie sheet, pudding steamer, loaf pan, brownie pan, spring-form cake pan and two tart pans.

With decades of manufacturing experience behind every product, Baker’s Secret guarantees superior baking results every time. For more information on Baker’s Secret head to www.bakerssecret.com.au and like the www.facebook.com.au/bakerssecretau to stay up to date with the latest product news, trends and baking tips!

Narrative writing category – CorningWare prize pack

The winner of the narrative writing award will also receive a CorningWare prize pack.

CorningWare, renowned for its premium quality bakeware, is giving you the chance to win a bumper set of cooking staples valued at over $225. The set is ideal for the home chef or entertainer and includes a 5.2L Dutch oven with glass cover, pie plate, four ramekins and round and oval baking dishes.

CorningWare is ultra-convenient, allowing you to cook, bake and serve in the same dish, meaning less time washing up and more time entertaining. For more information on CorningWare, see www.corningware.net.au

Restaurant review writing award – OXO Greensaver prize pack

The winner of the restaurant review writing award will also receive an OXO Greensaver prize pack.

With masterful design to meet all your kitchen needs, OXO is giving you the chance to win a pack of Greensaver Produce Keepers. With an activated carbon filter, elevated baskets to promote airflow and adjustable vents to control humidity, the range has been designed to keep produce fresher for longer, wasting less and saving more.

The prize pack has a combined value of $260, and includes a 1.5 litre, 4 litre and 4.7 litre produce keeper, crisper insert and four pack of carbon refills. The OXO Greensaver range is available in Australia from August.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Please be sure to read the full eligibility criteria and terms and conditions below. This competition is only open to Eat Drink Blog 2015 delegates that meet the eligibility criteria described in this document.

Entries for the competition will be based on blog posts published within the last six months, up to and including the closing date, between 2 February 2015 and 18 September 2015.

The post entered will be on any food-related subject, but the entry must fall into one of these categories:

• Narrative
• Recipe
• Restaurant Review

All entries will be judged on originality, a distinctive personal voice, clarity of expression and the degree to which each entry engages the attention of the reader. Chance plays no part in the selection of the winners.

For the ‘narrative’ category, the entry may be about a food travel experience, the headnote for a recipe, or an article about an aspect of food that interests, excites or frustrates you.

For the ‘recipe’ category, the judges will be looking at evidence of culinary knowledge, accuracy and a good understanding of clear and succinct recipe writing.

In the case of the ‘restaurant review’, the judges will be looking at accuracy, evidence of culinary knowledge, a degree of objectivity and attention to general aspects of the restaurant experience.

The word limit for entries in both the ‘narrative’ or ‘restaurant review’ is 1000 words. If the narrative post includes a recipe, the head note or story supporting the recipe will be judged, not the recipe itself. Therefore, the ingredients and methodology are not included in the word count. Entries in the ‘recipe’ category are exempt from the word limit.

Delegates may participate in more than one category (i.e. send in two different entries for two different categories).

HOW TO ENTER THE COMPETITION

To enter, submit ONE entry per category (a max of three different posts): Narrative, Recipe or Restaurant Review. Send an email to [email protected] with:

• Your full name
• Your email address
• The name of your blog and website address
• The category you are entering (i.e. narrative, recipe or restaurant review)
• Your social media IDs
• The URL of the post you’re entering, plus a PDF attachment of the blog post with text only (no images, please).

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION

 About You and Your Blog

• You are an approved Eat Drink Blog 2015 delegate.
• Your blog must be at least six months old.
• You are not a commercial blogger, for example, those blogging only for money or as part of their job, or a chef blogging for a restaurant, or business owner/staff blogging for a brand.

 About your entry

• Each entrant will be permitted only ONE entry.
• The entry must be from a blog post which has been published in the last six months leading up to the closing date of the competition
• The entry must be an original entry for your blog, i.e. not written for an online publication, newspaper or magazine.
• Original posts may be edited for length and clarity so that the entry is understandable without the original photographs.
• You have checked that you meet the eligibility criteria and you have followed the dot points listed under ‘How to enter the competition’.
• It is the entrants’ responsibility to inform Eat Drink Blog if their email address changes during the competition period.

 Competition and Usage

• Any submissions that don’t meet the above criteria will not be included for consideration by the judges.
• By submitting your writing to the competition, whilst you retain copyright of the writing, you give the current and future organisers of Eat Drink Blog and their assigns a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute them.
• As well as the above rights of use, if you are a winner of one of the competition prizes, you also give permission to the writing competition sponsors and their assigns to use the details of your winning submissions in media releases regarding the 2015 Eat Drink Blog writing competition.
• Decisions made by the Eat Drink Blog organising committee, such as validity of entrants or entries, and decisions by the judges regarding the winners of the competition are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
• 2015 Eat Drink Blog organising committee members, our sponsors (and their employees) associated with this competition are not eligible to enter.

 THE JUDGES

Wendy Johnson

Wendy graduated with a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada a few decades ago. She’s been living in Australia since 1995, having fallen in love with eucalypt trees and kangaroos. Wendy is passionate about Canberra and all the nation’s capital has to offer. She loves to write (about everything and anything) and owns her own pr and advertising business. In addition, Wendy has been writing tasty food reviews for CityNews for more than a decade, which has taken her up a full dress size. Not that she minds …

 Liz Posmyk

A vintage Canberran, Liz is an award-winning food writer who has combined her passion for cooking and sharing recipes for many years. She was a member of the committee instrumental in establishing the ACT Writers Centre (no apostrophe), and is well known for her blog, Good Things and, previously, her weekly newspaper column and 666 ABC radio segment. Liz earned the nickname ‘bizzy lizzy’ juggling the role of promotions manager of the Belconnen Markets with co-ownership of Canberra’s leading cooking school and cookware specialist. Across a decade, she managed a program of events that welcomed some of the world’s leading cookery writers and celebrity chefs to Canberra. Now retired from full time work, Liz spends her days cooking, writing and travelling with her partner and sous chef, Peter.

Thanks so much to our generous sponsors!

Any questions please email [email protected]. Good luck!

137 photo submissions were received!

This year we will be exhibiting the photos from the 12 finalists at the conference venue – the Exhibition Space at Perth City Farm during Eat Drink Blog 4 in Perth.

Thanks to Australian Pears for sponsoring the Eat Drink Blog 4 photography exhibition.

While the winner and runner up of Judge’s awards have been decided, the Community Award prize is still very much up for grabs.

To Vote for your favourite finalists –

1. Click this link,
2. Enter your email
3. Check your favourites
4. Click submit at the bottom of the form.

The entry with the most votes will win a KitchenAid artisan stand mixer valued at $655 sponsored by KitchenAid.

The judging panel’s (Seng Mah, Jessica Shaver and Kate Olsson) selection of the finalists for the Eat Drink Blog 2013 Photography Competition are (in alphabetical order):

84thand3rd – Quinoa Fried Rice

Citrus and Candy – Calvados

Emiko Davies – Homemade Truffle Butter

I Only Eat Desserts – Tuna at Tsukuji Fish Market

I’m so hungree - Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco

My Darling Lemon Thyme – Creamy celeriac soup with rocket oil

My Darling Lemon Thyme – spices

onebitemore – Pork and macadamia larb lettuce cups

Perth Scout – Tsukiji

The Krooked Spoon – Hazelnut and rose brownies

The Krooked Spoon –  Vanilla pannacotta w/rose gelle, sherbet meringue

The Whimsical Wife – The Perfect Meat Pie

Congratulations to the finalists.

Voting closes Wednesday 6 November 2013 20.00 (ACST), with the winners of the Judge’s Award and the Community Award prizes to be announced at the Eat Drink Blog dinner on Saturday night 9 November.

Get Voting!

This year we are excited to announce that we will be exhibiting photos from the 12 finalists chosen by the judges at the conference venue – the Exhibition Space at Perth City Farm during Eat Drink Blog 4 in Perth.

These 12 finalists will also be the ones that will go up for the publicly voted Community Award.

Does your photography has what it takes to be blown up, printed and displayed for all to see?

Thanks to Australian Pears for sponsoring the Eat Drink Blog 4 photography exhibition.

Prizes

Thanks to IMPACT Communications for coming on board again this year, KitchenAid and Nestlé as sponsors for prizes for the photography competition.

(1) IMPACT Photography Award – The winner will receive a $1000 Visa gift card sponsored by Impact Communications

(2) IMPACT Communications and KitchenAid Community Award (public voted) – The winner will receive a KitchenAid artisan stand mixer valued at $655 sponsored by KitchenAid.

(3) Nescafé Dolce Gusto Runner Up – Will receive a Nescafé Dolce Gusto coffee machine valued at $149 sponsored by Nestlé.

Judges

Entries will be judged by an esteemed panel consisting of Jessica Shaver (photographer), Seng Mah (photographer) and Kate Olsson (winner of last year’s IMPACT Award).

Entry Conditions

This competition is open to ALL Australian food and drink bloggers, not just conference delegates. 

Limit of three (3) photographs per blog with food or food culture a prominent component, if not the main subject of the photograph to Eat Drink Blog’s Flickr Group

Photographs must have been featured in a blog post published between the dates of 1 January 2013 and 29 September 2013.

All entrants must email [email protected] with the entrant’s name, email address, name of blog and website address, social media ID and link to photograph(s) on Flickr to be eligible for entry.

Entries must be submitted by 20.00 (ACST) on Sunday 29th September 2013

Before entering,  check the photography competition terms and conditions page to check your eligibility, full terms and conditions, details of prizes and bios of our judging panel.

Entries for the writing competition will be based on eligible blog posts published within the past 6 months, under one of the following the categories: Food or Wine Narrative, Restaurant Review or Recipe Development. One winner per category will be awarded a fantastic Profoline prize pack valued at $519.80 (Griddle, Braising Pan, Milk Pan, PushPan (22cm), PushPan (26cm) and Bakers Mitt) plus books from Wakefield Press valued at $300. 

Entries for the photography competition will be based on eligible blog posts published within the past 6 months, and there are three categories and prizes:

• IMPACT Photography Award – the winner will receive a $1000 Visa gift card sponsored by Impact Communications;
• IMPACT Community Award – the winner will receive a KitchenAid artisan stand mixer valued at $799 sponsored by Impact Communications; and
• IMPACT Runner up – the winner will receive 10 cookbooks sponsored by Harper Collins and a Dolce Gusto Melody Coffee Machine pack valued at $300.

Get your entries in by 9am this Friday 12th October for your chance to win!

There are two sets of prizes awarded to the best images out of the group of finalists. An IMPACT Award, for the best image as selected by our judging panel. There are also winner and runner-up prizes for the Community Award, as voted by the food blogging community, readers and the general public.

Without further ado, the winners of the 2011 Eat. Drink. Blog. Photography Competition are…

Community Award Winner

“Closer to Luke’s Salad” – Reminiscence of a Food Tragic

Congratulations to Stephen of Reminiscence of a Food Tragic for winning the 2011 Eat. Drink. Blog. Photography Competition Community Award with the most number of votes. He will soon be the recipient of the coveted KitchenAid stand mixer in the colour of his choice.

Community Award Runner-Up

“Hanoi Cafe” – A food lover’s journey

Anh from A food lover’s journey comes in at second place to win the Community Award runner-up prize of assorted bakeware from World Kitchen. Congratulations!

IMPACT Award Winner

“Tomato And Mustard Chutney” – Cook Republic

Last but certainly not least, the IMPACT Award, the best image as selected by our esteemed judging panel of food photography/industry professionals, is awarded to “Tomato and Mustard Chutney”. Congratulations to Sneh of Cook Republic for winning the grand prize of a $1000 VISA gift card, which she can put towards a new camera, lens, or whatever else her heart desires.

For the winners of the 2011 Eat. Drink. Blog. Photography Competition, you will be contacted soon regarding the delivery of your respective prizes.

A big thanks to our competition partner IMPACT Communications Australia for providing the prizes and for their support. Thank you also to our panel of judges – Quentin Jones, Natalie Boog & Julie Lee.

Finally, thank you to everyone that has participated in this competition. We hope to see you all again for next year’s competition.

This year’s finalists are (in alphabetical order):

• A food lover’s journey – Hanoi Cafe
• A food lover’s journey – Tea Break
• Citrus and Candy – Apple Zucchini Bread with Honeycomb Butter
• Citrus and Candy – Vietnamese Chicken Salad
• Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once – Cherries
• Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once – Garlic
• Cook Republic – Tomato And Mustard Chutney
• Gastronomous Anonymous – caramelised onion tart
• Gastronomous Anonymous – pumpkin custard with pumpkin seed
• My delicious blog – Untitled
• Phuoc’n Delicious – Rhubarb
• Reminiscence of a Food Tragic – Closer to Luke’s Salad
• The Food Pornographer – Chicken man
• The Food Pornographer – Chopping coconuts
• The French Wench – Heartichoke

Congratulations to the finalists, and a thanks to everyone that participated in the competition thus far, including our panel of esteemed judges – Quentin Jones, Natalie Boog & Julie Lee.

While the winner of Judge’s Award has been finalised, the Community Award prize is still very much up for grabs.

Vote for your favourite finalists by going to the Eat. Drink. Blog. Media Hub and clicking on the Like button of their image(s). The entry with the most Likes will win the coveted KitchenAid stand mixer.

But wait, there’s more…

With thanks to our competition partner IMPACT Communications Australia, there is now a runner’s up prize for the entry with the second highest number of Likes.

The runner’s up prize pack courtesy of World Kitchen, with a total retail value of around $100, consists of:

• Baker’s Secret Whoopie Pan
• Baker’s Secret Loose Base Square Tart Pan
• Baker’s Secret 4 Piece Magentic Measuring Cup Set
• Baker’s Secret 5 Piece Magnetic Measuring Spoon Set
• Pyrex 2 Cup Measuring Jug

Voting closes Sunday 18 December 2011, with the winners of the Judge’s Award and the Community Award prizes to be announced on Monday 19 December 2011.

Good luck with the competition.

There are a few photos that have been submitted without any info (possibly due to some error). If these are your images, please resubmit your application to ensure that you’re in the running for the competition.

When submitting your images, if you are not redirected to a page indicating your submission was successful, there was likely a problem with your submission e.g. image issue above.

One sure fire way of guaranteeing a failed submission is by not reading the submission guidelines carefully. Please be especially mindful that the images submitted are around or less than 500Kb in size.

To avoid any disappointment, if you are uncertain that submission was successful, please send an email to [email protected] to follow up on the matter. So long as this email is sent prior to the close of the competition, your submission, even if unsuccessful, will still be considered in the running for the comp.

Lastly, follow the official #eatdrinkblog2011 hashtag and/or @eatdrinkblogau to keep up to date on info regarding the competition. To those that have entered or are about the enter the competition, good luck with your submissions.

As indicated by the above image, the KitchenAid prize is indeed their latest model which was released only a short while ago. It comes with the standard attachments i.e. beater, whisk & dough hook; a new flexi-beater, as well as a clear glass bowl so you can see your cherished prize beating together a cookie dough, whisking up a batch of marshmallows, kneading brioche dough on the dough hook or flexi-beating whatever… ah… requires flexi-beating.

As for colours, the winner of this prize is free to choose whichever colour they desire. Colours include Candy Apple (red), Raspberry Ice (hot pink), Medallion Silver (mid grey), Black Storm, Electric Blue, Sugar Pearl Silver (light grey), Café Latte (white) and Antique Copper, as pictured above.

If you haven’t already done so, feel free to enter the competition for a chance to win this fabulous prize, or the major prize of a $1000 VISA gift card to spend on new camera, lens, lighting gear or whatever else the heart desires. However, be quick as entries for the competitions close next Friday 11th November.

Check out the current entries at the Eat. Drink. Blog. Media Hub.

I look forward to seeing all your mouth-watering entries!

Edit: Sorry, one last thing I’d forgotten to mention. For anyone interested to know, the retail value of this prize is $799.00.

A long overdue update regarding the Eat. Drink. Blog. 2011 photography competition.

As it was stated in a previous blog post, the organising committee decided on making some changes to improve the nature of the photography competition. We’ve moved away from the photography exhibition and photo prints of last year’s conference and instead directed our efforts to obtaining some seriously cool prizes for the winners of this year’s comp.

The competition will operate in much the same manner as before, though entries for the competition will now close Friday 11th November 2011 (enter the competition). The judging panel will select the top 15 entries as finalists of the competition. From the pool of finalists, two awards will be given – the IMPACT Award, for the best image selected by the judging panel, as well as the Community Award, selected by food blogging peers, readers and the general public.

Prizes

The prizes for each of these awards are:

• IMPACT Award – $1000 VISA gift card, that can be used toward upgrading your camera gear, make the move from your dinky point-and-shoot to a DSLR format, purchase that drool-worthy lens on the top of your wishlist, or buy a studio lighting kit so you can shoot with beautiful light at any hour of the day. Whether it be these options or some other, the choice is entirely yours to make.
• Community Award – A KitchenAid stand mixer, for the serious baker, cook and recipe blogger at heart (model, colour and retail value to be determined).

Judges & Judging Criteria

For the judging panel, a small group of industry professionals that deal with food photography as a part of their career were selected. The judges for the photography competition are:

• Quentin Jones – A veteran photographer who has worked for Fairfax Media for over 25 years, he currently shoots for the Sydney Morning Herald, specialising in food, architecture & lifestyle photography. You can check out his portfolio on his website Inkstain Media.
• He is also the person running the Photography Workshop at the conference.
• Natalie Boog – A professional photographer whose food photos have been published on the cover of Good Living magazine and was the photographer involved with the country food flag images for the World Chef Showcase 2009. She is also the blogger for Seasonal Diners. For more of her portfolio work, check out her professional website.
• Julie Lee – The Managing Editor for Australian Good Taste magazine.

The judging panel will select the finalists, as well as the winner of the IMPACT Award, judging each entry on three main criteria of equal weighting:

1. Technical – This refers to the technical aspects of the image e.g. an appropriate usage of exposure, colour balance, sharpness, depth of field and so forth.
2. Aesthetics – How beautiful and visually pleasing the subject, the composition and other elements of the image are, and how well they work with each other.
3. Creativity – The interesting and unique manner in which the subject and other elements in the image are portrayed, and how the message/story of the image is communicated.

Details regarding the judging of the Community Award will be announced around the time the finalists have been determined. Generally speaking, voting for the Community Award will run over a specified period and the finalist with the most votes for their entry will win the award.

For those of you who may be intimidated by bloggers with professional-level gear while you only use, say, a basic point-and-shoot, please bear in mind that the technical criteria of a photo is but one part out of three judging criteria. Just because you have professional gear, it doesn’t mean that your photos will be aesthetically pleasing or creative, let alone guarantee that you’ll score full marks in the technical area for that matter. Take it from someone who knows!

There’s no cost to enter the competition. So long as you meet the entry criteria on the competition submission page, you may be in with more of a chance than you think.

While this is not a part of the judging criteria nor a condition of entry, to make the most of your submission I’d advise submitting images of sufficiently large resolution within the file size limit of around 500Kb. Something around 500 pixels or greater on the shortest side of the image e.g. 500 x 700, 800 x 600 etc. You don’t have to but it’d be easier to judge an image that can be viewed full screen over one that is the size of a postage stamp.

Change to Conditions

For those of you that have already submitted an entry into the competition, there have been a few minor changes to the competition conditions that you’ll need to be aware of. Check out the Conditions of Entry for the full list of conditions. However, I’ll make note of the main ones below.

Firstly, a condition has been added whereby the winners of the competition (i.e. the IMPACT Award and Community Award) will need to allow the use of their winning entry for media releases regarding the competition. If this is some you do not agree to and wish to withdraw from the competition, please send me an email to [email protected] to let me know.

Secondly, due to the extension of the closing date for competition entries, it’s been decided to extend the blog post publish date range for valid entries. You can now submit any photos used in blog posts published between the dates of 1st September 2010 through to 27th October 2011.

Lastly, due to the these stated changes, revelation regarding the judging criteria, as well as other minor changes to the entry conditions, prior to the closing date for competition entries, existing entrants are permitted to do the following:

1. Resubmit your entry – In this case, you will need to resubmit you entry in full. Your previously entries will be deleted and replaced by the new one. This also applies to those that have submitted less than 5 images and wish to add more.
2. Withdraw – Send an email to [email protected] to let us know that you want your entry withdrawn from the competition. There’s no need to state the reason why and we won’t ever to ask for one.
3. Do nothing – Your existing entry will remain in the competition as is.

Finally, a big thanks to our competition partner IMPACT Communication Australia for their generous donation of these fabulous competition prizes. I look forward to seeing your wonderful entries

I just wanted to give you all a heads up regarding some changes that we’re seeing to to improve the nature of the photography competition.

Whilst we’re not in a position as of yet to give you the full details regarding the changes as they’re still to be finalised, what I can confirm for the moment is:

• The deadline for entries has been extended beyond this evening to sometime early November (specific date to be announced soon).
• The conditions of entry will remain pretty much the same, so all current entries are still valid.
• In the unlikely event that the conditions of entries changes, anyone who has already made a submission will be given the option to change their submission.