Rating: 
Summary: Food For the Masses
Review: How can you not like a book that features a character like the mysterious Tunnel of Fudge woman? Amy Sutherland's wit and powers of observation make this a good read. Her exploration of a subculture obsessed with creating new recipes for various processed foods provides a fascinating look at who we are, how competitive we are, and how preoccupied we are with our quirky passions. Be it competitive cooking, golf, bingo, or skeet shooting, Americans love to win. Sutherland does a great job of showing us ourselves through this microcosm of American culture. A somewhat careless editing job is maddening, but ultimately, the author has researched and written an enjoyable, funny, and compassionate book.
Rating: 
Summary: What a turkey
Review: I can't believe I read the whole thing. Are there two different versions of Cookoff? I don't see how anyone could call the author "sly". "Condescending" seems more accurate. Humorous? That's a laugh. I found boring stories about ordinary people using inferior processed food products brought to market by overly sensitive sponsors to create recipes that "reinforce the most slovenly American food habits-assembling instead of cooking". Cookoff is a turkey. Save your time and money, wish I would have.
Rating: 
Summary: SO Much More than a Food Book
Review: I could not put this one down. It's hilarious, suspenseful, and surprisingly inspiring. Sutherland has written a book that's about more than competitive cooking...it's about competitive America, about the beauty of improvisation, and our sense that nothing--not even a drippy Tunnel of Fudge--is impossible. Sutherland introduces a fantastic parade of characters, as amusing as they are driven, as creative as they are kooky, and as truthfully and warmly rendered as I've read in any book anywhere. If you enjoyed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, or more recently, Wordfreak, you will love Cookoff. Highly, highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: A Distant Second
Review: I enjoy watching cooking contests on the Food Network, so I was eager to read this book. Unfortunately, the book does not capture the excitement of seeing the cooks in living color or touch your heart when they talk about their lives in their own words. You can't see the frustration on their faces when the cookies crumble or their radiant joy when they win. Reading that somebody smiled or the tears flowed just isn't the same. Most of all, you can't see the FOOD. Many of these cookoffs have been shown on the Food Network or Public Television, and the experience of reading about them is a distant second.
Rating:
Summary: Two Minor Quibbles
Review: I have to agree wholeheartedly with all the glowing reviews this book has garnered. This is a quick, fun read, and it left me wanting to learn more. But two things keep me from giving five stars:
1. Several times the author mentions the strictness of the Dutch Oven competition. Although she delves into similar contests, I would've liked to have read her take on this unique cookoff.
2. This book cries out for pictures! I would love to see what some of these memorable characters look like. Even identifying the people depicted on the jacket would've satisfied my curiosity somewhat.
Rating:
Summary: Tasty!
Review: I love to cook, love to talk about cooking, love to read about cooking. I thought "Kitchen Confidential" was a hoot....but "Cookoff" is even better. "Cookoff" is equal parts cultural history, thriller, and comic inspiration. It took me into a world I know nothing about, but about which I had quite negative opinions. But the author introduced me to a broad assortment of imaginative folks, each with a good story, and some even with a recipe I might like to try myself. Sutherland explores interesting ideas about Americans and food, the underlying craving for recognition, sport, and money--she does this with a lot of heart.
Rating:
Summary: Much more than I expected
Review: I'm not a "foodie" and the most I cook is spaghetti but I really loved this book. Its a cultural tour of our great nation and the people that make it so. From the chiliheads to the food snobs they all contribute to the story. Ordinary people driven to extraordinary effort with less than perfect situations in the hope of being recognized as the best - Sounds like a great story to me and it was.
Rating:
Summary: Quite a dish!
Review: Sure, we've all heard of the Pillsbury Bake-Off, but most folks, myself included, didn't know about the competitive contesting circuit. Amy Sutherland takes you there in Cookoff, which is more about the human lust for competition than the food itself. She draws memorable portraits, with a sharp eye for detail and a sly way with the absurd. An enjoyable and enlightening read that will have you heading for the kitchen.
Rating:
Summary: A Second Helping Please
Review: The best way to read this book is quickly, lightly, and without too big of a literary appetite. Ruth Reichl it's not - but it's an entertaining read nonetheless.I found *Cook-Off* to be an amusing set of stories about a quirky, feel-good slice of Americana. The chapters read like a set of feature articles culled from the front page of the "Lifestyles" section of any small-town newspaper. The content is the main draw here: Sutherland makes a nice effort to draw together the disparate characters and dispersed narratives of this little-known cookery circuit. It's fun --wholesome, lighthearted fun. And if the writing is at times amateurish, the syntax is frequently tortured, and the grammar and vocabulary shockingly off-the-mark... well, that's the downside to small-town newspaper-ish writing, I suppose. One example:
"Only two people have won the International Chili Championship cookoff, the bigger of the two national chili cookoffs held in Terlingua, Texas, each year, twice in its long history." Another example:
"Americans cross spatulas at approximately more than 1,300 such competitions annually.... Chili alone accounts for more than 750 cookoffs nationwide. In Texas alone a chilihead willing to travel...." In Chapter 2 "alone" Sutherland gives us "approximately more than" 3 occasions per page to wince at her clunky sentences and poor grammar. This would have been an excellent read if the book had attracted a better editor. As it is, it is an entertaining read - as long as you don't read too closely. The story is nice, such as it is. The writing is a distraction, but not so much of one that it stands in the way of getting to the meat of the cooks' narrative.
Rating: 
Summary: Can she cook? A better question: Can she write???
Review: The best way to read this book is quickly, lightly, and without too big of a literary appetite. Ruth Reichl it's not - but it's an entertaining read nonetheless. I found *Cook-Off* to be an amusing set of stories about a quirky, feel-good slice of Americana. The chapters read like a set of feature articles culled from the front page of the "Lifestyles" section of any small-town newspaper. The content is the main draw here: Sutherland makes a nice effort to draw together the disparate characters and dispersed narratives of this little-known cookery circuit. It's fun --wholesome, lighthearted fun. And if the writing is at times amateurish, the syntax is frequently tortured, and the grammar and vocabulary shockingly off-the-mark... well, that's the downside to small-town newspaper-ish writing, I suppose. One example:
"Only two people have won the International Chili Championship cookoff, the bigger of the two national chili cookoffs held in Terlingua, Texas, each year, twice in its long history." Another example:
"Americans cross spatulas at approximately more than 1,300 such competitions annually.... Chili alone accounts for more than 750 cookoffs nationwide. In Texas alone a chilihead willing to travel...." In Chapter 2 "alone" Sutherland gives us "approximately more than" 3 occasions per page to wince at her clunky sentences and poor grammar. This would have been an excellent read if the book had attracted a better editor. As it is, it is an entertaining read - as long as you don't read too closely. The story is nice, such as it is. The writing is a distraction, but not so much of one that it stands in the way of getting to the meat of the cooks' narrative.
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