It was déjà-vu at the Fort Frances Times’ “Great Chili Cook-off” last Friday, with both winning teams from last year’s event taking the same titles this time around.
Dr. Mike Gerstner, Sherry Armstrong, and Stacey McQuaker of the Fort Frances Dental Centre once again captured the judges’ award for the best chili for their “Novocaine Special IV—You’ll be asking for more.”
“I’m feeling very lucky,” Dr. Gerstner said of his second-straight win.
While not available to serve up his concoction himself on Friday, he did all the cooking himself—and was very careful not to give any secrets away.
“I’m not even allowed to put chili powder in it,” Armstrong laughed.
Dr. Gerstner did say he followed a similar recipe to one he used four years ago. “But it was missing something,” he remarked.
Armstrong said in the days prior to the cook-off, she could tell he wasn’t happy with how the chili was turning out.
“He usually comes to work saying, ‘Oh yeah, I’m a good cook,’” she laughed.
“I wasn’t psyched about it,” Dr. Gerstner agreed.
But after a few more days of trial and error, he was able to perfect it. “I phoned him up the night before and he said, ‘It’s wicked,’” Armstrong recalled.
It seems the judges agreed.
Meanwhile, Jane Hayes, Ramiro Matias, and Donna Patterson of Rainycrest Home for the Aged took the People’s Choice award again this year for their “Chili of the Golden Oldies.”
Matias noted the secret to good chili is not in secret ingredients, but in how you put them together. “You can’t just slap it together because then it tastes like that,” he remarked.
“It takes tender loving care,” Hayes noted.
About 330 people attended this year’s cook-off, up from the 300 who turned out last year.
Gabe Glueheisen, who spearheaded the event for the first time with help from veteran organizer Susan Martin, said things went smoothly.
As well, about 40 cakes were donated for the “Great Cake Roulette.”
The event raised just over $1,000 for two local food banks.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
