It's no small responsibility to pick the United States' most important new recipes, and Bake-Off® Contest judges don't take their responsibilities lightly.
*. Judges sip ginger ale, water, coffee, tea or broth, or nibble on celery and carrot sticks between tastings.
* A guard is posted at the door of the judges' room to prevent anyone from entering.
* Judges are forbidden to have any conversations with contestants or other judges about any recipes or contestants.
* The judges don't attend any functions with the contestants until after the winners are announced.
* Judges pick the winners almost eighteen hours before they are told at the awards luncheon-but they are sworn to secrecy.
* The more things change, the more they stay the same. The judges in the first years of the Bake-Off® Contest were professional home economists--people who wrote about food for newspapers and magazines. Today the judges are food editors--people who write about food for newspapers and magazines.
From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.