我认为，探索我们当中很多人没有机会玩耍的话题可能会很有趣，而是很有趣的是：确定食品比赛的规则。

敏锐的读者可能还记得几个月前，我参加了当地的即兴派比赛，并被评为夏洛茨维尔的最佳piemaker。比赛结束后不久，组合在一起的人决定他们不能让人独自一人，所以竞争诞生了。这次，这不是一个快速的2周的事情，而是一场适当的竞争，诸如“超过两个竞争对手”和“收益捐赠给慈善机构等等”之类的奇特事物。

而不是参加下一轮比赛Cville Pie Fest, I am the Head Judge. This sounds impressive, and I’d like to encourage everyone to believe that. As the Head Judge (oooooooh), I got to make up the judging criteria for the Pie Fest. This is fun for a couple of reasons.

首先，它使我能够问并回答一个哲学问题：“是什么使一个派比另一个派更好？”通常，即使在烹饪时，即使我在馅饼中竞争，我也不会真正对自己的食物哲学上的哲学。我只是尝试思考什么是美味，什么使良好的外壳，什么会很好，但是没有任何真正的含义。

第二,在成为食品极客和making robots, I used to make video games. This means that I am temperamentally suited to making point and scoring systems. It’s been a while since I’ve had to create a scoring system, so good fun is to be had all around.

我们对派有什么了解？好吧，最重要的是它应该味道良好。味道不好的食物无法成为食物。它也应该看起来不错。作为一个馅饼，它存在于两个状态，同时可以呈现：整个和切成薄片。这两种状态对于馅饼享受都很重要。

当然，外壳很重要。糕点外壳应该是柔软的片状。Cookie Crust应该具有结构完整性而不会摇滚。纹理并不是唯一的重要因素。外壳本身应该是美味的。外壳不仅是船只，而且是菜的关键部分。有些人比馅料更关心地壳，尽管我并不那么极端。

最后一部分是传统性*或创造力。有些派应该是传统派。如果您要复制奶奶的苹果派，并且通过向其添加石榴来偏离食谱，这意味着您不会复制奶奶的食谱。另一方面，如果所有馅饼都是传统的，那将是一场沉闷的馅饼比赛，因此为创造力工作的空间很高兴。

以上为我们提供了框架。定义重要的事情，然后进行评分应该很容易。总体风味价值10分。这应该是某人可以获得的最高分数，强调风味的重要性。

Crust texture and crust flavor are worth 5 points each. Neither alone are worth what the overall flavor is, but together they show the importance of crust to a pie.

Whole presentation and sliced presentation are likewise worth 5 points each. I’ll admit, it’s a little cruel making the pie have to look good in both states, but it’ll give the pie makers something to worry about before judging. You can’t let all of the work finish just because the pies are baked. It’s like a wedding cake competition, where you have to move the cake before it can be judged. A cake that can’t be delivered is a cake that cannot be sold; likewise, a pie that doesn’t look good on the plate is not as likely to be eaten.

Finally, you can score 5 points either for Creativity or Traditionality. These are mutually exclusive categories. By wrapping them up into one score, I hope to encourage someone to either go big with their pie changes, or stick to a traditional recipe and do it right. Minor variations will be punished, but doing one or the other well will be rewarded.

总的来说，我们有一个有用的指南来判断馅饼。它有一种观点，应鼓励面包师遵循这种观点。有一个尚未涵盖的小元素：如果有领带，该怎么办？

The easy way to deal with a tie is to pick a single person to break the tie. It could be the Head Judge, or it could be a Special Guest Judge. That works out well, and is a great backup plan. Still, it would be nice to limit the likelihood that there will be a tie. After all, one tie every few years is exciting; one tie every few categories gets boring.

So what I’ve done is to rank the importance of each category. I did that a little with Overall Flavor being more points than any other single category, but in this case I can be a bit more explicit. In order of importance, the categories are:

1. 总体味道
2. 地壳（质地）
3. Presentation (Whole)
4. 或者iginality/Traditionality
5. 地壳（风味）
6. 演示文稿（切成薄片）

If there’s a tie, we can take the total score from all of the judges for each category individually. This means that if one pie tastes better than the other, it wins. If they’re both tied on flavor, the texture of the crust is the next most important, and so on.

Hopefully the rule for ties won’t come into play, but I like to be prepared. If the scores are tied all the way down, then we can do the Special Guest Judge thing. But really, what are the chances?

好吧，我玩得开心，现在是你的：如果您参加了馅饼比赛，您将如何判断？我疯了吗？我过度思考了吗？我要后悔这个星期六吗？我很想听听您在这种情况下会做什么。

* - 是的，我完全构成了“传统”一词。