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The Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest was introduced in 1949
in honor of Pillsbury’s 80th birthday.
Originally called the “Grand National Recipe and Baking
Contest,” 1949’s inaugural Bake-Off received thousands of entries from across
the country. Pillsbury Best flour was a required ingredient in all recipe
submissions and there were six categories that participants could enter:
breads, cakes, pies, cookies, entrees and desserts. If participants submitted
a seal from the Pillsbury Best flour they used in the recipe, their prize
money could be doubled.
A panel of Pillsbury home economists eventually
narrowed the entries down to 100 finalists. Each finalist was invited to the
live competition at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City to make their
recipe in hopes of winning the $25,000 grand prize.
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Of the 100 finalists invited to compete at the
first Bake-Off, just three were men. One of the male finalists’ recipes was
called “Quick Man-Prepared Dinner.”
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Before contestants could prepare their
recipes, electricians installed 100 oven stations in a Waldorf-Astoria
ballroom. In order to power all those ovens, the hotel actually had to tap
into the electrical supply for the New York City subway system!
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The first contest’s winning recipe was No-Knead Water-Rising
Twist, created by Theodora Smafield of Rockford, Illinois. Smafield was
awarded $50,000 for her recipe, which called for the unique rising technique
of wrapping dough in a tea towel and submerging it in warm water.
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The original $25,000 grand prize doubled for Smafield since
she submitted her package seal from Pillsbury Best flour. The remaining
$20,000 was divided among the other eight finalists.
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A beaming Smafield accepts her $50,000 grand prize check at the inaugural
Bake-Off Contest in 1949
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