Chili Cook-Off

Finally I'm able to post about this super fun event I participated in a couple weekends ago. The Texas Chefs Association hosted a Chili Cook Off during the Chile Pepperama Festival in Dallas. The Executive Chef at Presby, Chef Bill, invited myself and fellow intern, Stephen, to participate in it with him. Well, more like, against him :) Stephen has culinary experience, so it only seemed fit to have him be apart of my team. On the Friday before the cook-off, Stephen and I worked in the Presby kitchen to make our chili concoction. We were required to make 15 gallons of chili!!! The event was expected to host about 4,000-5,000 people, so we had to make sure there was enough for plenty of people to taste.

The day of the event..we decided to go with the 'Western' theme. Team Jack & Jill and their "Fire Roasted Red Chili"

This Cow carried around a sign that said 'Eat More Chicken'..perfect for all the BEEF being served..there were 20 teams with 15 gallons of chili each..thats a lot of beef!

Team Presby: Antron, Chef Bill, and Jon

There chili was "I Can't Believe This is Hospital Food" chili..it only seemed fit :)

Jack and Jill- Our shirts were so cute! Everyone got a kick out of them.

The Line of the day..

"....No, you may not have a side of 'Jill' with your chili.."

Lots of people came out to support, including a couple other interns- this is a sign that Ashlyn made and wore around the festival! :) Look at all of our "People's Choice" tokens!!!

Lots of people!

CHEESE!

Serving it up

All of us- we had such a GREAT time harrassing each other (but team Jack & Jill definitly had more tokens than Team Presby!)

It was such a LOOONNNNGGGG day (started at 7am and we walked to our car in the rain around 6pm!). Stephen and I walked around to taste some of the chilis. We walked up to taste the "7 Pepper Chili" and they said "Hey! Jack and Jill, we have heard SO much about your chili and how it tastes A LOT like ours!!"

In the end, a professional team won.. a traditional chili that tasted pretty darn good.

....$1,000 Prize went to..... "The 7 Pepper Chili".

Bummer. Still, even though we didn't win, it was a fantastic time competing in my first (and hopefully not last!) cooking competition.