Wow, over 140 beautiful recipes were submitted in the $2,000 Year of the Fig Recipe Contest sponsored by the California Fig Advisory Board. See them all here. A lot of folks have asked us "How in the world will you choose only 6 winners?!?" It was NOT easy, so we thought we'd share with you the guiding principles from which we judged the entries (the judges were a group of folks from California Figs, their PR agency, Fleishman Hillard and us).

Artistry & Technique Whether it be hand-drawn or digital, painterly or graphic, we looked for recipes that were excellently done in terms of color, execution and rendering.

Creative Design & Smart Typography We looked for recipes that had innovative layouts and type treatments that were not only very legible but also engaging.

A Strong Hook Beyond the style and the design we looked for recipes that had an interesting hook such as humor, emotion, cuteness, and/or mouth-watering goodness.

Celebrate the Fig Lastly, we looked for recipes that really celebrated the fig by rendering them beautifully and using them creatively.

Like we said, it was not easy to narrow it down to only 6. The CEO from California Figs was blown away by the response and all the figgy goodness and said that picking winners was the hardest and funnest decision she had to make in a long time!

Thanks everybody for a fun contest! Click the titles of the winning recipes to view and comment:

1st Place Fresh Fig Winner of $500 Rigatoni With Figs And Curry by Tomek Giovanis

2nd Place Fresh Fig Winner of $300 California Fig Salsa with Grilled Lamb Chops by Sofia Lourenco

3rd Place Fresh Fig Winner of $200 Fig & Grape Shake by Jessica Rae Gordon

1st Place Dried Fig Winner of $500 Oatmeal with Honeyed Figs by Jessica Pollak

2nd Place Dried Fig Winner of $300 Skinny Figgy Bars by Charrow

3rd Place Dried Fig Winner of $200 California Figs Strawberry Jam by Kaitlyn McCane

Congratulations!