If you’ve been following the Tastemaker Challenge since it began in October, then you know that the final showdown took place last weekend at the Blissdom Conference in Nashville, TN. And what an event it was! Our Tastemakers rocked the house turning out amazing looking and tasting potato dishes in just 20 minutes using the array of ingredients we provided, while the enthusiastic crowd cheered them on. As a reminder, our nine Tastemakers were:
Amy, who blogs at Resourceful Mommy, a superstar with a skillet and can whittle any grocery bill down to pennies!
Jen, blogging over at Savor the Thyme, intimidated the competitors with her super-speedy microwave techniques. Not only that, but she can impersonate all eight of the other Tastemakers perfectly!
Bringing more than his fair share of testosterone to the competition was Jim of Busy Dad Blog. With everything from magic tricks to Napoleon Dynamite up his sleeve, Jim was a fierce competitor from day one!
Next up: Jo Lynne of Musings of a Housewife, who has a knack for being in two places at once as you saw in one of her videos. She’s a mom on a mission and a stud in the kitchen!
Jodi Grundig, who blogs at Mom’s Favorite Stuff, is a potato lover who knows a thing or two about creating the ultimate comfort food without sacrificing nutrition – the best possible combination!
Melanie Edwards, known as Modern Mami, pushed the limits of creativity with unique dishes throughout the competition which made us with we could take a bite through the computer screen!
Lindsay Maines, who you may know as Rock ‘n Roll Mama, lived up to her name in every challenge – rockin’ out to tunes in every video with her edgy style. This woman knows how to handle a mandolin!
Rachel Matthews, from A Southern Fairytale, showed off her “hot potato” dishes in a signature Southern style all her own – with music to match!
Last but not least, we had Melanie Sheridan – or Mel, A Dramatic Mommy, who took our challenges to heart and has seriously revamped her grocery shopping and pantry organization as a result.
Here’s how it all went down at Blissdom:
Each Tastemaker drew a wooden spoon from a bag labeled either “mashed,” “baked,” or “salad” which represented the type of potato dish they would need to prepare. Each Tastemaker was also assigned a mystery ingredient. Although using the mystery ingredient was optional, it did mean earning extra points for those who did choose to incorporate it into their dish. Mystery ingredients included: basil, turkey bacon, feta cheese and avocado. Then, as soon as we said “Go!” the Tastemakers were off and running with their dishes. 20 minutes later, here’s what we had:
The event emcee and judge was the fabulous Meredith Myers, Public Relations Manager for the United States Potato Board. Dishes were judged on the following criteria: Healthy Factor, Visual Presentation, Entertainment Value & Crowd Engagement, Use of the Mystery Ingredient and Overall Taste. Although the decision was difficult, there could only be one winner! It’s my pleasure to introduce the Potato Tastemaker 2K10: Rachel from A Southern Fairytale!
We also announced the Fan Favorite, which was determined by the total number of votes a given Tastemaker received on their three videos on YouTube. The winner of Fan Favorite was Jo-Lynne from Musings of a Housewife!
A BIG thank you to all 9 of our Tastemakers and to everyone who came out and watched the final event! We hope you all enjoyed following Tastemaker 2K10 as much as we enjoyed working on it. If you need to catch up on any videos you may have missed visit the Potato Goodness YouTube channel. And, to see photos from the final event, visit our Facebook Fan page, Potatoes, Taters & Spuds and the #Tastemaker 2K10 Challenge photo album or our Flickr page. If you were there, feel free to tag yourself!
1 response so far ↓
The fun of this event was OFF the charts! Seriously.
I wish we’d tasted each other’s dishes, though!!!
Thank y’all so much for putting this together, it was a highlight of BlissDom and 2009 for me!