The Food Charlatan Cooking Challenge!
Cook, share & Win
Cooking together is way more fun! Join the challenge and master your favorite recipes with a community of “charlatan” cooks. Win fun prizes along the way! I’ve dreamed about doing challenges on The Food Charlatan for YEARS. Let’s gooooo
I can’t wait for you to join me in the kitchen!
Current Challenge
Summer Cookout Challenge
Our Summer Cookout Challenge is all about the potluck. You know, that moment when you can hear yourself asking, “What can I bring?” I want you to have the BEST recipes up your sleeve for every cookout, BBQ, or hoedown you get invited to!
Make at least 1 of the 3 challenge recipes in the month of July and share your pictures!
All of our challenge recipes for July are easy crowd-pleasers that will have everyone hunting you down for the recipe. Warning: you might just get asked to make them for every event from now on!
The July Challenge Recipes
These 3 recipes are lick-the-bowl-clean, fight-over-the-last-bite, make-a-beeline-for-the-buffet level awesome.
The Details
Make the Recipes
Make the 3 easy summer recipes (Smash Burgers, Broccoli Bacon Salad, and Peach Cobbler) in the month of July.
Take Pictures
Take pictures of your awesome food and share a photo on Instagram, on Facebook, (tagging @thefoodcharlatan) OR send me an email at challenge@thefoodcharlatan.com.
Win!
On August 1st I’ll randomly select from those who entered the challenge and shared a photo of at least one of my summer recipes to win a $200 Visa gift card!
Join the Challenge
Sign up for the challenge! Here is the form to enter. Lots more details down below!
Additional Details
- You’ll get one entry for each recipe you share photos of via email or social media, up to a total of 3 entries (one per recipe). Email, or social: it’s your choice!
- For BONUS entries, leave a star rating and review for Easy Broccoli Salad, Homemade Smash Burgers, or The Best Peach Cobbler! 3 additional chances to win 🤩
- Along the way, I’ll drop into your inbox with grocery lists, soccer-mom-level-cheering, and tips for how to make these easy recipes even easier.
- Give back: For every person who joins the challenge, I’m donating $1 to Feeding America. They rescue surplus food, and help get it to hungry people using a nationwide network of food banks. I’m super excited we get to support this awesome organization together!
Challenge FAQs
Snap a picture of your meal and share a photo of each recipe you make on Instagram or Facebook, tagging @thefoodcharlatan so we can see it. OR send me an email with your photo at challenge@thefoodcharlatan.com.
I would love to see photos as you take them! So if you make Smashburgers the first week, snap a photo and post it and tag me. Then the next week snap a photo of your Broccoli Salad and email it, or post it. You choose! Photos must be shared before midnight EST on July 31, 2025.
Anyone! NO robots or lizard people allowed. 😂 If you’re under 18, get permission from your parents :) You don’t have to live in the US. You don’t have to be an amazing cook or photographer (ugly photos were like, my whoooole thing back in the day).
A $200 Visa gift card! Think of the possibilities. You could buy a chicken lamp with a glowing egg protruding from its behind, or an inflatable lobster costume (this is the one I wore for Halloween last year, see photos here). Or 3000 ladybugs (no, those aren’t extra zeros). Or just a year’s supply of butter. I mean, or a month’s supply…I guess that depends on your butter needs!
Randomly. Look, I was a real fake in the kitchen when I started this blog (honestly, still am!) and this prize is for trying something new, not for impressing me with your culinary skills. The real prize is the recipes we learned to make along the way! (too cheesy?? sorrynotsorry). I told my dad about the challenge yesterday and he thought it was a contest. He was like, how will you know whose is the best?? I was like, oh, NOPE, everyone gets a participation trophy!! (don’t FedEx me your burgers so I can taste them plz.)
If you are not into this challenge, check back later to see what our October Challenge is! We run challenges at The Food Charlatan in January, April, July, and October.
It’s totally okay to make substitutions! If you want to try making the Smashburgers with venison meat, or change the dried cranberries for raisins in the Broccoli Salad, that’s cool. The challenge police will never find you.
