The 28th National Beef Cook-Off will come to California in late September, during the peak of the area’s beautiful harvest season to host both a Chef/Media Challenge (as well as a home cook competition). Professional restaurant chefs working in the San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento metropolitan area counties are asked to submit their original, newly developed beef dish that best portrays “Sonoma-Style” cooking. Recipes should yield 24 servings. Six professional restaurant chef finalists will be selected from the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento counties to compete on Sept. 21 when they will prepare and present their original “Best of Beef” dish in a private Chef/Media Team Challenge, for prizes totaling approximately $5,000. One grand prize winner will receive one paid registration and trip to the December Texas A&M University “Beef 101 Seminar”; one People’s Choice Award winner will receive one paid registration to the 2009 Culinary Institute of America’s Worlds of Flavor International Conference & Festival; and four first place winners will each receive $500 in cash prizes.

The National Beef Cook-Off requires entrants to enter recipes online at www.beefcookoff.org, or by postal mail to: National Beef Cook-Off Entries, ANCW, P.O. Box 3881, Englewood, CO 80155 by March 31. Mailed entries must be postmarked no later than March 31 and received on or before midnight April 7.