Bake-Off, Chili Cook-Off & Coffee Cupping: Run a Food Contest with Bracket Voting
A food or drink contest is easy to organise and surprisingly hard to score. A table of judges gives you one opinion and a lot of arithmetic. Voting contests let the whole room decide instead — entries with photos and tasting notes, a live leaderboard, and an optional head-to-head bracket to crown the winner.
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In This Guide
Start From a Food & Drink Template
You do not have to build a contest from scratch. Selecting a template pre-fills the contest name, description, competitor labels and placeholder entries, so the only thing left is to swap the placeholders for your own dishes, drinks or bakers.
Coffee Cupping
Compare brews side by side and let the room pick a favourite.
Wine Tasting
A ranked or head-to-head tasting flight, one vote per taster.
Craft Beer
A flight of beers voted on by everyone holding a glass.
Bake-Off
Cakes, pies and bakes judged by the crowd instead of one table.
Chili Cook-Off
The classic pot-by-pot showdown, scored by the people eating.
BBQ Showdown
Ribs, brisket and sides in a bracket that builds to a final.
Best Pizza
Slice against slice, head-to-head, until one pie is left.
Cocktail Battle
Mixed drinks, one category per round, one vote per person.
Open the picker on create a voting contest and choose the template that matches your event. The full lifecycle — setup, entries, voting windows and results — is covered in the voting contest format guide.
Bracket vs Leaderboard vs Hybrid
Every voting contest runs on one of three voting modes. Pick the mode that matches how you want the room to decide, not the size of your table.
Leaderboard
A single ranked poll. Voters pick their favourite from the whole field.
A large field, or a quick office tasting where everyone wants one simple vote.
Bracket
Head-to-head single elimination. Tasters compare two entries in each matchup and vote.
A judged or fundraiser format, where each round gives the room a moment of tension.
Hybrid
Run the poll to rank the field, then seed the top entries into a bracket.
Cutting a big field down, then settling it with a knockout final.
Choosing a mode for a tasting
For a tasting, bracket mode means tasters compare two entries head-to-head in each matchup and vote. That is the format to reach for when the event is judged or you are charging for tastings at a fundraiser — each round becomes a small moment of theatre.
Leaderboard mode is a single ranked "pick your favourite" vote across all entries. It suits a large field, or a quick office tasting where people want one tap and a result.
Hybrid is the middle path: run the poll to cut the field, then let the bracket decide the winner.
Step-by-Step: Run the Contest
The whole setup is a handful of screens. Here is the order that keeps the event simple.
- 1
Pick a template
Choose the closest of the eight food and drink templates. The name, description, competitor labels and placeholder entries are filled in for you, so you are editing rather than starting blank.
- 2
Name your categories
One category per dish or drink type, if your event has more than one. A single clear category is easier to explain than five, so split only when the food genuinely differs.
- 3
Add the entries
Entrants or the organizer add entries with photos and tasting notes. Public submissions can be enabled with organizer approval, so competitors upload their own entry and you approve it before it appears.
- 4
Choose the voting mode
Leaderboard for a single ranked poll, bracket for head-to-head single elimination, or hybrid to poll first and then seed a bracket from the results.
- 5
Open the poll
One vote per person per category. Voters can change their vote while the poll is open, and duplicate voting is prevented by IP for open polls or by account for registered polls.
- 6
Watch the live leaderboard
The page polls for new data about every 15 seconds, so results move as the votes come in. An embeddable widget puts the same vote on a club or venue website.
- 7
Advance the winners
Top entries move to the next round or the finale. Anything level goes to you to break — see the next section.
Handling Ties
Voting splits. When two entries finish a matchup level, the software does not guess — the matchup is marked "Tied" and the organizer breaks it in the admin panel. That keeps the outcome auditable and keeps the bracket moving instead of stalling on a dead heat.
The admin controls for reviewing votes and breaking ties are documented in the voting help page.
Two habits that make ties rare
Give each matchup a clear voting window, so people vote once per round rather than drifting in late after the result is known.
Decide up front who makes the call in a tie — the head judge, the organizers, or a coin toss — so nobody argues the rule after the result.
Running It at a Live Event or a Fundraiser
A voting contest is not a tournament, and that changes what you need on the day. There is no tournament registration, no entry fees and no player roster to sign up — participants simply sign in on the category poll pages to vote. You can open the vote to anyone in the room, or to anyone online, without building a competitor list first.
Put the leaderboard on a screen
The page polls for new data about every 15 seconds, so a venue screen shows the standings moving as the room votes.
Embed the vote
An embeddable widget puts the vote on a club or venue website, so people can take part without an account.
Make each round matter
In bracket mode the head-to-head matchups give each round a natural point to call for votes.
Show the entries
Photos and tasting notes travel with each entry, so people vote on what they can actually see and read.
Categories and the Best in Show Finale
If your event has more than one kind of dish or drink — pies and cakes, or red and white — run a separate category for each. Multiple categories can feed a grand finale: the top N from each category advance to a Best in Show, run as its own contest.
Categories and the finale use separate voting windows. That lets you close the category polls, publish the qualifiers, and then open voting on the finale — so the final vote is a clean contest between finalists rather than a rerun of the group stage. The format guide covers how those windows are configured.
Pricing and Entry Limits
Entries are the only number to plan around, and the limit applies per contest.
Free
Up to 8 entries
Enough for a single category at a club or office event.
Starter
$49/mo
Up to 64 entries per category — a full multi-category event or fundraiser.
Larger
Custom quote
For contests beyond the plan limits.
Running several categories inside one contest? Count the entries across the whole event, not per category, and reach out for a quote if you expect to go past the plan limits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I run a bake-off or chili cook-off as a bracket?
Yes. Bracket mode is head-to-head single elimination for 4 to 64 entries. Tasters compare two entries in each matchup and vote, so the contest builds to a final instead of one flat poll.
What is the difference between bracket and leaderboard voting?
Leaderboard mode is a single ranked poll — voters pick their favourite across the whole field, and it supports up to 200 entries. Bracket mode is head-to-head single elimination for 4 to 64 entries. Hybrid mode runs the poll first, then seeds the top entries into a bracket.
How many entries can I have for free?
The Free plan covers up to 8 entries. Paid voting plans start at $49/mo for up to 64 entries per category, and larger contests are available by custom quote.
Can voters change their vote?
Yes. Voters get one vote per person per category and can change that vote while the poll is open. Duplicate voting is prevented by IP for open polls, or by account for registered polls.
How do I handle a tie?
A tied matchup is marked "Tied" rather than resolved automatically. The organizer breaks the tie in the admin panel, which keeps the outcome auditable and keeps the bracket moving.
Do contestants have to register like a tournament?
No. Voting contests do not use tournament registration — there are no entry fees and no player roster signup. Participants simply sign in on the category poll pages to vote.
Can I run multiple categories and a grand finale?
Yes. Multi-category contests can feed a grand finale: the top N from each category advance to a Best in Show. Categories and the finale use separate voting windows, so you can publish qualifiers before opening the final vote.
Can I add photos and tasting notes to each entry?
Yes. Entrants or the organizer can add entries with photos and tasting notes, and public submissions can be enabled with organizer approval so competitors upload their own entry before it appears.
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