Duane Hicks
In what’s believed to be a first for the “Great Canadian Chili Cook-off,” organizers had to hold a sudden-death, blind taste test to break a tie to see which team would win this year’s “People’s Choice” award last Wednesday.
A total of 150 ballots were filled out by chili-lovers who dropped by the Legion for lunch.
But after organizers tallied and then re-counted the votes, they found that Main Street Market’s “Mama Loa’s Voodoo Fire” and Seven Generation Education Institute culinary student Mary Green’s “Pirate’s Pick” finished in a tie.
“Samples were taken downstairs in the Legion to have a blind taste test for the winner,” noted Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce manager Annely Armstrong-Thorstad.
“In the end, Main Street Market squeaked out the win by one vote.
“As far as we can recall, there has never been a tie, let alone such a contest, for the win,” Armstrong-Thorstad added.
Krista Kellar of Main Street Market was surprised and elated with the decision.
“I was just excited to be involved in this in this,” she remarked.
“I was a long-time eater, first-time participant.”
Kellar said her chili recipe was something she’d been toying with—and it paid off.
“I believe chili should be hot,” she reasoned. “You should know you’re eating chili, not just something plain.”
“It was a lot of fun, and it was fun to see how everybody’s interprets chili,” Kellar added.
“It’s kind of a broad spectrum to begin with,” she noted.
Kellar said her chili was made with locally-grown ingredients, with the exception of the jalapeno peppers.
All of the beef used was provided by Willow-Mor Farms of Devlin.
“Here at Main Street Market, we do whole-heartedly believe in supporting the local agricultural community. We shop local,” Kellar stressed.
“We know farmers feed us so we might as well help them keep food on their tables.”
Kellar said she “had an absolute blast,” and was pleased to see “an underdog” win “People’s Choice.”
“I’m not going to lie—I cried,” she laughed. “And I did a really stupid dance.
“People were there to witness my moment of shame.
“But going into this, I didn’t actually think we’d win at all,” she admitted.
Kellar said the Chamber “was a delight to deal with,” and she particularly enjoyed being located next to Alexa and Pam Buttner of Rockcut Accounting and Bookkeeping who were serving up “Walk the Plank” chili.
“We’ll be back again next year to defend the plaque,” she vowed.
Green, meanwhile, said she almost could taste the victory.
“So close,” she remarked last Thursday. “But I was happy.
“It was good to see everyone’s team spirit and see them get so involved with the theme,” she added.
This was the first time Green had been to the chili cook-off—and the first time she competed in any kind of cooking competition.
But when it comes to making her chili, she figured it was best to stick to her own personal taste and make one she would want to eat.
“I like a lot of vegetables so I took several different kinds of peppers and added them,” noted Green.
“I added some sweetness—just tried to keep it kind of traditional but added my own little flair to it.
“I didn’t want to scare anyone off or be too spicy,” she added. “Tried to keep it friendly for everyone.”
Green admitted she didn’t get a chance to taste any of the other chili being served last Wednesday.
“Honestly, I was just too chili’d out from making it, smelling it,” she laughed.
“I was getting full just from being there.”
Holmlund Financial, meanwhile, garnered high marks from the judges for its “Yo Ho Holmlund’s Hearty Chili,” earning the prestigious “Judges’ Choice Award.”
Holmlund’s won the same honour in 2009 and 2011.
“We have a recipe that we use as a base and just kind of add to it every year,” noted Susan Bodnarchuk, who made and served the chili along with Jean Dick.
“We have some, I’ll say, secret ingredients that we put in to give it a nice, warm, homey flavour and I think that’s part of what gets us the votes,” she reasoned.
While they usually get a little extra help in the kitchen when making their chili, Bodnarchuk said this year she and Dick prepared it on their own.
“But we did have some of the Legion ladies do a little taste test for us after we had the chili ready,” she noted.
“They all liked it so we thought it had to be pretty good. They’re all cooks themselves,” Bodnarchuk chuckled.
Bodnarchuk said she and Dick also enjoyed this year’s theme, “Pirates of the Chili-Be-An.”
“Everybody was dressed up and the tables were decorated, so it was nice for the guests coming in to see the extra excitement going on,” she remarked.
Chili was served up to about 175 people by a total of 10 teams.
The other six teams were:
•Kiwanis—“Cannonball Special”;
•NCDS—“Golden Treasures”;
•Rainycrest Long-term Care—“Fire in the Hole”;
•Seven Generations (Desiree Alfred)—“Mars. Sparrow’s Legged Chili”;
•Seven Generations (Tim Bruyere)—“Haunted Lagoon”; and
•Seven Generations (Derek Turcotte)—“Loose Cannon Chili”
This year’s chili judges were mayoral candidate Andrew Hallikas, 93.1 The Border’s Andy C, and Duane Hicks of the Fort Frances Times—all of whom had different opinions when scoring such a wide variety of tasty chili.
But after marking the chili in six different categories, including taste, appearance, texture, originality, spiciness, and presentation, the scores were averaged out and Holmlund Financial tallied the highest.
Last Wednesday’s event also featured the ever-popular cake roulette, with proceeds going to the Robert Moore School breakfast program.
Armstrong-Thorstad was told by Robert Moore vice-principal Donna Kowalski as she was leaving that they made enough from the cake roulette to feed the kids for a week.
“That’s just the best news to hear!” enthused Armstrong-Thorstad.
