The World Food Championships has named Monument Grills its Official Gas Grill partner for the 2026 edition of the annual competitive-cooking event, slated for October 15–18 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center in Indianapolis. The deal integrates the Atlanta-founded grill brand into a four-day competition that draws hundreds of culinary competitors across ten food categories and carries a prize purse exceeding $400,000.
The Burger Battle Anchor
The partnership's centerpiece is the inaugural Burger Battle, scheduled for October 15 in WFC's Kitchen Arena. Competitors will prepare slider-sized burgers for attendee sampling, and guests will cast People's Choice votes to determine a winner — with Monument Grills units serving as the primary cooking equipment. The format mirrors the interactive, fan-facing activation model that regional food festivals and culinary competitions have leaned into as experiential programming has become a key audience-retention tool.
Beyond the single-day Burger Battle, Monument will carry the Official Gas Grill designation across all WFC activities throughout the weekend, placing the brand in front of competitors, culinary professionals, and a consumer base the event describes as numbering in the thousands.
Brand and Event Fit
Monument Grills, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2026, positions itself in the prosumer outdoor-cooking segment — premium materials, app-connected temperature control, and proprietary features such as ThermaSear™ technology and Clearview® glass lids. The brand claims a user base of more than one million grillers and has received coverage from food and lifestyle media. Its retail and direct-to-consumer channel makes sponsorship of a high-visibility competitive-cooking event a logical awareness play, particularly as the outdoor-cooking equipment category faces a more selective consumer spending environment heading into the 2026 holiday season.
WFC Founder and CEO Mike McCloud framed the alignment around shared values: "Their commitment to community and craftsmanship makes them a natural fit for Food Sport, and the Burger Battle is the perfect place to put that philosophy into action."
To activate the partnership commercially, Monument is offering WFC attendees and fans 10% off any online grill purchase using code WFC10 through December 31, 2026 — a direct-response mechanism that extends the sponsorship's commercial window well past the October event dates.
For foodservice equipment observers, the WFC platform represents a relatively efficient route to reach serious home cooks and culinary competitors who overlap with the prosumer buyer profile — a demographic that professional kitchen equipment suppliers and specialty food brands have also targeted through competitive-cooking and food-festival sponsorships. Coverage of related culinary competition trends and outdoor-cooking equipment dynamics can be found in our food and beverage industry coverage and events and competition reporting.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
