Have you ever thought about entering a cooking contest? That didn't stop one local 'team' from entering the Uncle Ben's 'Ben's Beginners Cooking Contest.' The idea of the contest is to inspire families to cook together and to help kids learn cooking skills.

There will be five grand prize winners, each to receive $15,000 in cash, a celebration in their hometown, plus the student contestant will also get a $30,000 cafeteria makeover for their school.

The local team, from Poughkeepsie, is John Ruhland and Cassidy. They were tasked with creating a rice based dish, together. They then had to take a photo of it and submit the recipe and photo.

The next stage of the contest is to have people vote at unclebens.com for their favorite dish. The voting continues through November 6, 2017.

Have you ever entered a cooking contest or any other type of contest and won? Maybe even made it to the next round.

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