News : State Fair Cook-Off: Cummings, Bruce win honors

Phil Cummings receives the Showmanship Award from the Iowa State Fair Queen.

Michelle Bruce receives the First Place award for the State Fair Cook-Off lamb contest.

A girl samples Michelle Bruce's lamb at the State Fair on Tuesday.

Team competition: Scott Bahmann, Chad Meyer and John Sellman answer questions from the judges.

Showmanship winner Phil Cummings discusses his menu with State Fair Cook-Off judges.

Lydia Close serves samples of her Italian chicken.

Phil Cummings pauses to honor the flag as the National Anthem plays at the State Fair.

Lydia Close answers question about her Italian chicken recipe.

Scott Bahmann created this bird from an apple for the State Fair Cook-Off contest.

Chad Meyer and John Sellman work the grill at the State Fair Cook-Off.

Scott Bahmann carves the apple to create the unique bird.

Lydia Close wears the apron the Iowa Farm Bureau gave to each Cook-Off participant.

Nicholas Sumner represented Benton County in the Youth Cook-Off.

Louis Guynn represented Benton Co. in the State Fair Pork Cook-Off.

The winner of the Showmanship Trophy of the Iowa State Fair/Iowa Farm Bureau Cookout Contest says he is a procrastinator who waits until the night before the Benton County Fair to choose his recipe.

Phil Cummings received the trophy from the Iowa State Fair Queen at the end of the contest on Tuesday. In addition to his Tuscan beef, he also prepared a watermelon dessert and tiramasu, which he placed in a decorative fashion on the table under his canopy on Grand Avenue, which becomes the Grand Concourse each August.

Cummings has cooked on a grill all his life, starting with hamburgers and hot dogs, learning the basics from his father. His wife Helane was so impressed with his cooking that she kept suggesting that he enter the Benton County Cook-off. He finally did that for the first time in 2011.

He advanced to the State Fair last year, and won a second place award in the Pork contest. This year he chose a beef recipe that he created the night before the Benton County contest.

Throughout the morning, Cummings answered questions from judges, passers-by and media about his recipes and how he knows how to keep a constant temperature in the wood-fueled cooker he had made especially for this event.

The other Benton County winner was Michelle Bruce, who won first place in the Lamb contest. She created a kabob recipe, and told the judges that the first time she tried it she marinated it too long. She was more pleased with the result of Tuesday's recipe.

Other Benton County participants in this year's event included: Louis Guynn, pork; Lydia Close, poultry; the team of Scott Bahmann, John Sellman and Chad Meyer; and Nicholas Sumner, youth.