White Castle(R) to Crown Culinary King or Queen of Annual Recipe Contest

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- At 2 p.m. on August 18, a group of 11 judges will gather at the White Castle home office to select the winner of the 2005 White Castle Crave Time Cook Off.

This year Columbus State Community College helped select the top ten winning recipes that were based upon the best use of 10 White Castle hamburgers, originality and taste. They will also prepare the winning recipes for the judges to sample on the day of the event. As in the past, a host of recipe entries were received from all over the country.

This year's lineup of judges includes: Deane Cobler, Professor, Columbus State Community College; Doral Chenoweth, "The Grumpy Gourmet," and Mike Harden, both of the Columbus Dispatch; Lois Dowling, the 2004 Crave Time Cook Off winner from Tacoma, WA; David Hoekstra of the Chicago Sun Times; Colleen Marshall of NBC4 Columbus, OH; Marc Silverstein from the Food Network and host of "Go Ahead, Make My Dinner" on the Discovery Channel; Philip Vaughn of http://www.columbuschefs.com/; Robert Welcher of Restaurant Consultants, Inc; William Yerkes, owner of bono-PIZZA in Kilbourne, OH; and Bill Ingram, president and CEO of White Castle System, Inc.

The winning recipe as well as the other nine finalists will be published in a free recipe booklet along with the famed White Castle Turkey Stuffing recipe that will be available in all Castles in early October. The winner also will receive one Crave Case of 30 White Castle hamburgers per week for an entire year.

  The top ten recipes are:
   - White Castle Portabella, submitted by Kevin Baumann of St. Louis, MO;
   - Swedish Castles by Sue Litzinger of Westerville, OH;
   - Cheesy Broccoli CASTLE Casserole by Jennie Garcia of Steger, IL;
   - White Castle Lasagna by Lance Bottari of Union, NJ;
   - White Castle Bread Pudding by Timothy Janus of Avon, CT;
   - White Castle- Steak Sauce Loaf by Paula Allen of DeMossville, KY;
   - Morning Crave by Karen Burke of Wright, KY;
   - Mike's Craveable Chili by Mike Nowlin of Columbus, OH;
   - Castle con Queso Dip/Casserole by Robert Morgan of Corydon, IN;
   - Nicole's Mexi-Castle 8-layer dip with bun chips by Nicole Neumann of
     Sterling Heights, MI.

The third White Castle recipe compilation book, and the first to be marketed in retail bookstores, "By The Sackful: A Scrapbook With Recipes from 85 Years of Craving" will be available in mid-September. The book celebrates the company's 85th anniversary and the affection its customers have for its signature steam-grilled hamburgers. Proceeds from the sale of book will benefit Turkeys 4 America, Inc., formed in 1996 by then nine-year-old Dan Nally and his sister Betsy. Dan saw a newscast reporting that the Greater Boston Food Bank was going to be short over 5,000 turkeys for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and he and his sister collected 36 turkeys that first year. Through their entrepreneurial efforts to feed the hungry they have now served over 1,000,000 people nationwide, opening satellite branches of Turkeys 4 America, Inc. in the Midwest and plans for programs in Colorado, California, Florida and Michigan. For more information visit http://www.turkeys4america.org/.

White Castle is based in Columbus, Ohio, and operates 393 restaurants in 11 states. The company was founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921 and was the first fast-food hamburger chain.