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Back in the day (meaning some time between 2003 and I don't know when), VB had their own version of of Iron Chef. The general theory was to have a theme ingredient and a set of rules. Vbers would post their dishes and after a set time, there'd be a vote for the winner. My memory is fuzzy, but I think the winner would then be in charge of setting up the next ICVB.
I feel like these competitions are good for people to participate in, because they encourage participants to expand their culinary horizons and get to show others the process of how to make a dish. I've seen some pretty insane and amazing things, like this:
(That's a miso glazed rice cake topped with a rhubarb and horseradish quick pickle from another forum's version)
My big thing is that on other forums where posters are used to fine dining, they find a lot of what vegetarians do to be kind of horrifying. It's not that they are so horrified at a dish that doesn't contain meat (let's face it, tons of ethnic food is meatless and freakin' delicious), but that instead of using whole foods and wholesome ingredients, we're using tons of fake meat products and weird processed vegan cheese to make up for not using meat/dairy/eggs.
So, I'd like to challenge this assumption with cooking challenges that encourage using fresh foods, minimal processed weird stuff, and to encourage everyone to make something awesome. For instance, marinated tofu used in a stir fry would be fine, but using a commercially available meatless product like MSF chick'n strips in it would not.
If I can get a decent amount of interest, I'd be willing to start the first challenge and provide some form of prize for the winner.
I feel like these competitions are good for people to participate in, because they encourage participants to expand their culinary horizons and get to show others the process of how to make a dish. I've seen some pretty insane and amazing things, like this:

(That's a miso glazed rice cake topped with a rhubarb and horseradish quick pickle from another forum's version)
My big thing is that on other forums where posters are used to fine dining, they find a lot of what vegetarians do to be kind of horrifying. It's not that they are so horrified at a dish that doesn't contain meat (let's face it, tons of ethnic food is meatless and freakin' delicious), but that instead of using whole foods and wholesome ingredients, we're using tons of fake meat products and weird processed vegan cheese to make up for not using meat/dairy/eggs.
So, I'd like to challenge this assumption with cooking challenges that encourage using fresh foods, minimal processed weird stuff, and to encourage everyone to make something awesome. For instance, marinated tofu used in a stir fry would be fine, but using a commercially available meatless product like MSF chick'n strips in it would not.
If I can get a decent amount of interest, I'd be willing to start the first challenge and provide some form of prize for the winner.