She did it again. And now she’s done it again.
Cooking Light, the nation’s largest food and fitness magazine, announced Monday that Devon Delaney of Princeton had won the $20,000 grand prize in its fourth annual Cooking Light Ultimate Reader Recipe Contest. Her winning recipe: Ranch Steak Bruschetta Salad.
So this is a very big deal for Ms. Delaney, who teaches computer skills at Princeton Day School, right? Well, that depends …
Last year Ms. Delaney won $40,000 in Better Homes & Gardens’ big cookoff. And she’s got her heart set on winning the National Chicken Cooking Contest, held every two years in North Carolina, where she has already placed as a finalist — twice. The top chicken prize is a cool $100,000. Cluck, cluck, indeed.
Ms. Delaney described herself as “a fairly competitive person” who enjoys the challenge and relishes the actual roll-up-your- sleeves cookoff events. She has entered all sorts of cooking contests in the last 10 years or so, including the Pillsbury Bakeoff, McCormick spices, the Peanut Institute, Mrs. Dash, etc.
Aside from keeping track of what’s winning where, Ms. Delaney’s secret, if she has one, is her preference for low-fat, high-flavor cooking. All recipes get their tryouts at home, with husband Chris and their sons as judges.
Go, Devon, go …
— Michael Redmond

