Chili Cook Off Declares Two Awards

The Paradise Area Chamber of Commerce added an activity to their second annual Ice Festival, Saturday, February 27, a  Chili Cook-Off.  It just made sense to offer a warm up during the plethora of activities, scheduled through the weekend: Ice Fishing Contest, Ice Sculpture Contest, Snowmobile Safety Class, Snowshoe Hike, Lantern Lit Ski Trail,and Polar Plunge.  
 
In this first event there were four entries, Vegan Chili, Cincinnati Chili, Chili Picante, and  D & B Chili. Contestants set up prior to noon, provided a copy of their recipes, and provided sufficient quantities of their chili to offer as many 50 miniature servings to taste testers.  From noon until 1:00 PM approximately 22 tasters stopped in and sampled this variety. Two tasters had been prearranged to serve as judges. The chamber provided insulated cups, spoons, napkins and soda crackers to cleanse the palette between samples.  One of the contestants provided corn chips and an assortment of sauces to either add heat or lower the temperature of the chili in accordance to your preference.  Contestants were encouraged to decorate their station as much as they wished and could visit with tasters or permit tasters to serve themselves.

The biggest delight of the day was the relaxed atmosphere as people meandered about from crock pot to crock pot, asking the cooks/chef's a variety of questions and then tasting.  A number of conversations were struck among the tasters, oohing and aahing as they shared stories of family favorites.  

At the end of the journey the tasters wrote down the number of their favorite crock pot.  A few collected copies of  the recipe of their choice for another day.  

At 3:00 PM the awards program identified the Chili Cook-Off award recipients.  In this first year, two chili chef's were recognized through the Judges Choice and the People's Choice.  The Judges Choice went to Dianne Clark and her Chili Picante. Dianne offered to tasters her Chili 101 curriculum and shared with people information about chili peppers and temperature control of your chili. The People's Choice Award went to Deb and Bill Mangham for their D & B Chili.  Deb shared with the event coordinator, Nikki Craig, that quite often their chili takes on a different flavor, depending upon what herb is available.   Each contestant and taster seemed to be gratified by the experience and encouraged at the possibilities of a 2nd annual event in 2017.