Announcing: AMATEUR GOURMET SURVIVOR 2004

First of all, check out my mad Photoshop skillz:Second of all, ahoy! Welcome to the newest sensational project from your sensation-loving gourmet. This one should prove to be a lot of fun. Unless I get sued, in which case it will cease immediately.Here's how this works:1. We will (hopefully) get a good cluster of interested participants.2. Each week there will be a challenge. The challenges will be broadly interpretable and therefore will only be as expensive and time-consuming as you make them. You can't buy your way to victory here! Unless you send me a personal check for $1000, in which case you are the winner. (E-mail me privately for details).3. The challenges will be varied and will not be cook only. For example, I might challenge you to "eat something daring." Then you will go eat something daring and come back and report on it.4. Oh, this is a good time to mention that digital cameras, while not required, are much encouraged. How else will we be able to judge your efforts? So if you don't have one, maybe borrow one from a friend?5. Eliminations will be made (as they are on Survivor) each week by the Survivor participants, who will e-mail me personally who they want to eliminate. However, Amateur Gourmet readers will be able to immunize a particpant each week too. This will be done in the comments section for that week's entries. That way everyone gets to participate.6. The winner will receive a gift from our corporate sponsor. Who's our corporate sponsor? Good question! If you run a corporation and would like to sponsor Amateur Gourmet Survivor 2004, please contact me directly. Otherwise, the winner will surely receive something nifty---Fruit of the Month Club membership, maybe?7. Finally, participants should be amateurs only. No accomplished chefs allowed! The more amateur you are, the more you will be rewarded for participating.So, in conclusion, sign up in the comments section below if you're interested! This promises to be a lot of fun. Include your name, location, and cooking/food experience. Sign-ups will last for 24 hours and then tomorrow (Wednesday) I will announce the first challenge. Participants will have until Sunday to e-mail their contributions and then voting happens Monday. If too many people sign up (which I sincerely hope they will), we will do a mass elimination. But let's cross that bridge when we come to it, shall we?Until then, welcome to the next chapter of the Amateur Gourmet experience.