CONTEST
RULES
Teams
Teams may include military and civilian employees of the host unit, and immediate family members. Teams can consist of one person, or as many people as you like.
Equipment
Entries
You may use any grill that fits in your assigned 10’ x 15’ cooking area. You may share a cooking device with another team, but each team will prepare its own entries. Do not build fires on the ground.
Firefest will provide each team with proteins, rubs, and sauces sufficient for the competition. You must use only the proteins provided for contest entries. In addition, you are welcome to cook whatever additional food products for your team, friends, or others. You may use any rubs and sauces provided, or bring your own.
All seasoning and cooking must be within the assigned team space. With the exception of grill marks, meats shall not be marked or branded in any way.
No garnish is allowed. With the sole exception of a Burger Bash, only the competition protein may be included in the turn-in box.
Use the boxes provided to you, with the number on top at turn-in. Submit at least 5 portions.
Food Safety. Please use sanitary gloves when handling proteins, and keep the meat covered before and after cooking. Cook chicken and turkey to a minimum internal temperature of 165°F. Cook beef and pork to a minimum internal temperature of 145°F (cook ground beef to 160°F). Once cooked, maintain proteins at a minimum internal temperature of 140°F pending turn-in.
Burger Bash. With the exception of the ground beef we provide, your burger may consist of any food product you bring. Burgers must include a ground beef “patty” and shall be served on a bun or other bread product. Lettuce on a burger is not considered garnish. Bacon is allowed.
Judging
Entries may be turned in five (5) minutes before to five (5) minutes after the stated turn-in times, announced at the cooks’ meeting.
Absolute Score. Judges will consider appearance, taste, and tenderness, and assign each entry an overall score from 1 to 5 as follows:
5 - Excellent
4 - Good
4 - Average
2 - Below Average
1 - Poor
DQ - Disqualifying
Disqualification. Judges will disqualify any entry with sculptured meat; a marked turn-in container; foreign object in the container; meat not cooked completely; incorrect meat; or insufficient portion(s) from the shorted judge(s).
Relative Score. In addition, each judge will rank the qualifying entries in order of preference from best to worst.
How the Winner is Determined. The winning entries will be based upon the best cumulative rank (relative scores) from each of the judges. In the event of a tie, the entry with the best absolute scores from the judges will win. If an entry is tied in both relative and absolute scoring, a coin toss will decide the winner.