Are you looking for a creative way to get customers into your restaurant? How about having a recipe contest? Shows such as Iron Chef America and all of the Challenge shows on the Food Network have brought the idea of cooking contests to the forefront. When you also consider such food competitions as the Pillsbury Bakeoff and The National Chicken Cooking Contest, which both have large monetary prizes, it is easy to see that these contests are taking off. But don’t worry, you don’t have to offer your customers thousands of dollars to enter a recipe, putting their recipe on your menu, even for a short amount of time, is likely to bring in more recipes than you could imagine (just look at how excited the contestants on The Next Food Network Star got when they had the chance to have their recipe served at Red Lobster).

No matter what kind of restaurant you have there is a competition that would be perfect for you (this web site provides some great ideas). And it is easy to come up with some quick, straightforward rules and guidelines for your competition (this site provides some good baselines, as do the rules for other contests). All you need to do is pick a meal or ingredient that you would like to feature, create your rules, publicize your event with signs and advertisements in your local paper, and get ready to judge a lot of recipes.

Once you have some recipes you like you can either make them yourself to taste them or make it into a big event. A cook off competition, like what is featured on Food Network Challenge, would be a great way to get your restaurant’s name out and get people to know your business. There will be hoops you need to go through for this, so be sure to talk to your health department, but the attention it will bring to your business is worth it. Once you have the winning recipe you are going to feature make sure you publicize when you will be serving it, so people will know when to come in and eat.

Once you get them in the door, wow them with your ambiance, great service, and incredible food and they will likely turn into repeat customers. Your Serv-U representative can help you gather all the materials you need for the cook off and for everyday cooking and serving at your restaurant, so give them a call today.