World Food Championships - November 8-12, 2024 Culinary Crossroads is a fan of food sports at all levels, from the Junior Chef Academy at Paramount Schools of Excellence in Indianapolis and Skills USA cooking competitions for Indiana high school students to local chef throwdowns and national events.
Food sports competitions may have started with bake- offs and BBQ competitions, but the World Food Championships (WFC) have taken food sports to an entirely new level. The WFC attracts more than 1,500 home cooks, chefs, and professional cooking teams who compete in 10 food categories for more than $100,000 in prize money. And in November 2024, that competition comes to Indianapolis! It all started with efforts to highlight some of our top culinary chefs who were competing in the WFC, and Culinary Crossroads reached out to both the public and private sector to underwrite its first initiative – helping chefs competing in the WFC. Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch provided leadership and support from both Indiana Tourism and Indiana Grown. Additional underwriters included Indiana Kitchen, ClusterTruck, Red Gold, Piazza Produce, The Agency Worldwide and MConnect Group. Our chefs competed at the highest level with three reaching the finals in their respective categories. Although we didn’t bring home a championship trophy, we did bring home our second Culinary Crossroads initiative: the 2020 WFC Final Table. The Final Table competition includes the 10 category winners from the World Food Championships competing for the title of World Food Champion and a $100,000 payday.
Kid chefs to compete in Indy at WFC Although the originally scheduled for May 2020, Final Table Indy was postponed due to the pandemic and was carefully executed in August 2020 at Ivy Tech Community College’s Culinary Center. In keeping with all local and state health guidelines, the event and the overall initiative were well received and lauded for demonstrating the ability to bring energy and upbeat stories during the turbulent and challenging times of the pandemic.
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