Just as people who are really serious about their triple axels dream of going to the Olympics, people who are really serious about their jelly shots shoot for the Gowanus Studio Space Jell-O Mold Competition in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The competition is a blend of art and gastronomy, where design and taste go hand in hand.

“We have not had a grand-prize winner whose molds did not in some way appeal to the judges on a culinary level,” said Nadia Siddiqui, one of the organizers, in an email interview. “And we do award a runner-up prize for taste/culinary appeal, just as we have runner-up awards for design aspects including structural integrity and aesthetics (which to my mind also involves taste).”

In many cases, she notes, taste is an implicit aspect of the design. For example, the 2011 grand-prize winner, “Jelly Fishin’ ” by Peter Pracilio, was a collection of colorful fishing lures flavored to actually attract fish. Pracilio’s lemon sinkers, butter crab bait lures, and raspberry and chocolate worms were put to the test on the Brooklyn waterfront, and word is, Pracilio caught a real fish.

To learn more about the competition, go to: gowanusstudio.org/jello.


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