'The Big Cook-Off' in the 2nd Generation of Rune Factory 2

In the 2nd Generation of Rune Factory 2, you will experience most of the same Festival Events as in the 1st Generation but there is a new Contest in the form of the Big Cook-Off. In the 1st Generation, the Festival that occurred on the same day was the Fishing Contest.

In your first year in the 2nd Generation, you may have insufficient levels even to cook the dish that Herman designates as the entry successfully. After all, you will have had less than two full seasons to practice. In my game, the designated dish was 'SEAFOOD PIZZA'. It may be the same dish in every game. The 'SEAFOOD PIZZA' requires Level 43 Cooking Skill.

Fortunately, SEAFOOD PIZZA is a dish that Yue sells. I bought one from her and saved it for the Contest to see if the game would accept it as a valid entry.

In fact, the dish was accepted. The first time I entered it, I won an 'honourable mention' with second place. The prize was a FUR SLEEPING BAG. With second place, every one congratulated me as though I actually had won the Contest. I was rather surprised by the enthusiasm every one demonstrated. Serena and Sera won 1st place and Leann was awarded the 'participation prize' with 3rd place.

I did not save the results. I returned to a point two days before the Contest and played through it again. On this occasion, the same dish won only the 'participation prize' with 3rd place and Leann won 1st Place. The consolation prize is a POTATO.

With POTATO in hand, people behaved rather badly, in my view. They spoke with absolute scorn of my lack of cooking expertise. Orland went so far as to declare that I shouldn't have entered if I had no potential to WIN the Contest...

I had saved the game at 6.00 a.m. this time. I replayed the Contest four times and each time, the result was identical.

The results apparently are loaded into the game at 6.00 a.m. on the day of the Contest in terms of the 'scores' for Leann and Serena and Sera. The only variable that remains is your own score, which would depend on the Level of your Dish, I daresay.

If I had been able to connect to another player via Wi-Fi, I could have traded the purchased dish back and forth, thus raising its level and guaranteeing 1st Place.
In all honesty, I was rather surprised to have won 2nd place with a Level 1 SEAFOOD PIZZA purchased from Yue.

Here's the Event with both results: