6th Annual Chili Cookoff
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- Created on Monday, 04 November 2013 16:16
- Written by Jeremy Holden
LYNDON - Chili lovers from all of the North East Kingdom came together for the sixth annual chili cook off hosted by the Lyndon Outing Club. People gathered around to eat cups of sample chili, listen to live music from local bands and musicians like Suncooked and Red Tin Box.
Tables lined with chili including some there were sweet or spicy, that had meat or veggies, or a combination. Lyndon State College President Joe Bertolino joined the cook-off as a judge for the day saying, "I like a sweeter chili with a little bit more substance, a little bit more meat, maybe a little bit of sausage, a lot of vegetables." Whatever your taste, Sunday's cook-off had what you were looking for.
Plenty of people tried their luck including Lyndon State student Chris Paine, "This is actually the first time I made chili. We went off of a recipe offline and kinda tweaked it, something we thought would be good, and it came out pretty good." Many entered but only one could win the competiton and have their chili crowned champion. "Each of the different chilis come to us in a cup with a number, and then essentially we have a score sheet that gives a number, and it's judged on overall taste, and consistency, and aroma, look, aftertaste, so a whole bunch of catgegories. And then we give those score sheets to somebody else, they add them all up, so I have absolutely no idea who's won," Bertolino said.
At the end of the tastings Lisa Brown won the competition with her smoked chipotle chili, and won best decorated, earning her a prize total of $225. But its, not all about winning, "I think it's good for the club, I think it's good for the community to get out, and there isn't all that much that goes on up here on a regular basis, and I think having an annual event like this that can draw people from in town is definitely good for both the club and the community," said Chris Paine. Overall the Outing Club made $450 in the fundraising event.