The Iowa Pork Producers are now taking nominations for the Best Breaded Pork Tenderloin contest. Spokesperson . Kelsey Sutter says they expect to hear from a lot of people.
“Recent research from the National Pork Board tells us that pork tenderloins are Iowan’s favorite way to consume pork, so I don’t think it’s any secret that we love our pork tenderloin sandwiches,” she says. You can nominate your favorite place to get a pork tenderloin through the end of this month. “We do the nomination period to get suggestions, make sure we’re not missing any hole-in-the-wall places in rural Iowa, we want to make sure that everyone has a chance,” Sutter says. “Iowa Pork has eight districts across the state of Iowa, so we will judge the five with the most nominations in each district to make sure that we have an even spread around the state. That gives us our top 40, and then we will spend the summer months visiting those 40 restaurants.”
The panel will make its selection of the top tenderloin in October. “And we will have a panel of judges that includes members of the Iowa Pork Producers Association as well as some chefs that go around together as a group and judge the top five and usually somewhere around the middle of October pork month, we will announce our 2025 winner,” she says. You may nominate your favorite eatery at www.iowapork.org.
The Dairy Sweet of Dunlap won the 2024 top breaded tenderloin contest.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)