Last time on proof...

Hundreds of thousands of contestants have entered recipes over the last few months.

Our reporter, Garrett Schlickdy, has been tracing the evolution of the cooking competition.

From their very early days at state fairs, food contests were an arena to showcase local products.

There's always a wide variety of interesting things to see at the Missouri State Fair.

We then moved into the 1940s when the grand national recipe and baking contest, or what would

later become, the Pillsbury Bake Off contest came onto the scene.

Home cooks were scored not just on how good the recipe was,

but also on what made the dish interesting.

In other words, the backstory behind the recipe.

We then transitioned into the mid-2000s

when cooking competitions were about showmanship,

outlandish challenges, and hyper-competitiveness.

Chefs, please open your baskets.

Goat brain.

Oh, man.

Oh, my God.

Rocky Mountain oysters.

I'm shi-cracking.

And mashed potato candy.

Along the lines of competition, my first two dishes blew them out of the water.

I mean, I don't think we were even on the same playing field.

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