Starter Kit. Idea 96 of 500. Cluster 4
Cookery competitions for visitors, judged by a village panel, with the prize being dinner
The mechanism, from the book
An app that tells people what is happening tonight converts a day visit into a 2-night stay.
The first step
Organise one afternoon competition in a village hall: visitors cook one dish with a village cook's help, and three villagers judge. The prize is dinner with the village. Sell places through two guesthouses nearby at a stated price per cook. Paid places, and photographs full of laughter, are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Groups of friends and families on holiday who want a fun afternoon that ends in a meal they earned.
- What leaves today
- Villages watch tourists pass through; a competition pays village cooks and judges for an afternoon and a dinner.
Ask first
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what hygiene standard a cooking event for visitors needs.
- the Divisional Secretariat. Ask whom to approach to involve the village in hosting.
Check before you spend
That the cooking space is safe and clean, that the village panel is paid fairly, and what insurance covers guests cooking over fire.
Find out these three numbers
- What will visitors pay to enter the competition?
- What do ingredients cost per contestant?
- How many guests make a lively competition?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lanka. Chapter Five
"One is a meal. The other is a story they will tell for 30 years"
A cooking contest becomes a story the guests tell for years.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.