Could a chef spend their career entering recipe competitions?

Why not, when the prizes stack up to more than just ordinary dough.

But for some contests, chefs have to be already working.

Take for instance US Foods‘ Next Top Product contest. From now until August 3, all the 250,000 chefs who are customers of the company can submit recipes to the contest. The winning recipe wins $20,000 in cash and products.

The top 30 qualifying recipes will then be posted on US Foods’ Facebook page for public voting in early August. The three chefs who receive the highest number of votes will prepare their dishes at the US Foods Fall Food Lovers Forum in Chicago this September. The winning recipe will debut as a Chef’s Line product in March 2013.

The contest coincides with US Foods launch of their Chef’s Line Mediterranean products that includes risottos, tapenades, stuffed pastas, and panna cottas. The Chef’s Line doesn’t yet have celebrity chef branded products – so the new contest will actually be creating a chef’s brand from one of US Foods own customers. For the winning chef, that means a name branded product – something all Super Chefs have under their belts.

Click here for more information on the contest.