We're offer two levels of competition:

Level I: Prepare one course with the secret ingredient. You can make an appetizer/salad, entree, or dessert. Each course will have its own secret ingredient.

Level II : Prepare an appetizer/salad, entree, and dessert with the secret ingredient. There will be one secret ingredient for all courses.

Once you tell us how you would like to participate, we will forward you the secret ingredient URL for the Level and course that you have selected.

For the current competitor numbers, click here.

General Guidelines:

Judging:

Entries will be judged on presentation (20%), creativity/originality of recipe (20%), and taste (60%). We will provide fresh, warm rice if you want to use it as an accompaniment for your dish. Just let us know by the Thursday before the party that you'll be needing it (so we can have enough prepared).

How much to make:

In order to have enough to feed the judges and attendees we recommend preparing servings for 10-15 (small size servings). Of course, if you want to prepare more of anything, the hungry hoards will happily descend.

Prizes:

There is a prize for the winner as determined by the judges and for Best of Show which is by popular vote. This year's prize is especially interesting, or so we think. The Best of Show winner as determined by the voting grazers will be added to the Iron Chef trophy.

How it will work (and we reserve the right to change this on the fly as needed ;-) :

1. All food must be prepared in advance. There will be a grill available on a first-come, first-served basis (and the cooking the flank steaks will trump competition requests).
2. When you arrive with your entry, we will photograph it so we can capture its presentation before the hungry guests descend upon it.
3. At around 6-ish the official portion of the event will commence (as posted on the home page of this Web, so check back during the final week to be sure). Chairman Kaga, with the help of his translator, will introduce the judges and each level of competition as it commences.
4. You must be in Kitchen Stadium Issaquah during your assigned time to compete--Why? Cause last year was chaotic and we had to bring some order and flow to the competition. Sorry.
5. Public tasting by the judges and private voting will be completed for by 9:00pm.
6. Guests will be voting all evening on the Best of Show.
7. At around 10pm all votes will be announced and prizes awarded. Chairman Kaga will breath a sigh of relief.

Guest Food Allergies/Sensitivities: To avoid any food allergy complications, email us with the name(s) and ingredients of your dishes so we can have menu cards ready.

(UPDATED) So far the only problems we are aware of are with nuts (except cashews), citrus (particularly grapefruit), dairy products (lactose), onions /shallots (but leeks are OK), and coconut. Please also indicate if there is any pork or shellfish (even as part of a sauce) in your dish. We will keep this list up to date as guests email us with their limitations.