A Jubilant Chili Jubilee at The Village at Blue!!
As Silver Anniversaries go, it was a “doozey”.
It began with a morning of dodgy weather — serious storm clouds and strong gusts of wind threatened to blow some of the chili booths away topoints east! But 21 teams of chili cooks forged on and readied for the Chili Battle to come. By late morning, with cooking well underway, the weather improved. Eventually, the sun broke through and treated a record chili cookoff crowd to a glorious afternoon of sun and fun and music and..CHILI. Lots and lots of chili.
Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary Club organizers eventually sold out of Peoples Choice tasting kits, and at 2:01 p.m. precisely, they sent over 800 chiliheads out to taste for themselves the fruits of the chili cooks labours for the previous 3 hours. While the public in the jam-packed Events Plaza at The Village at Blue Mountain made their way from booth to booth, sampling the amazing variety of chilis, the official judges were hard at work in the judging tent, deliberating over the dozens of steaming “bowls o red”.
The results of all that tasting and deciding produced a double winner! Kyle Cupskey and his BT Chili Team from Bridges Tavern in Thornbury impressed the official judges enough to become Open Division Champions, taking home the coveted “Brass Spittoon” trophy. But by the end of the afternoon their chili had also garnered the greatest number of votes from the public and therefore the BT Chili Team was also crowned Peoples Choice Champions! No mean feat for a team completely new to the world of competition chili!
Tina Szyjak and her Texas Leprechaun Chili Team from Windy ONeills did well again this year, taking 2nd Place in the Open Division. They must be doing something right! And Bev Byrnes Thornbury Community Theatre chili team, who had “come out of retirement” to help celebrate the cookoffs 25th anniversary, proved they could still cook up a mean pot, taking 3rd place in the Open Division with their Chili Stars Chili.
This was obviously a good year for chili rookies. For the second year in a row, a rookie team was crowned as Ontario Provincial Champions Stephen Perrin and his Rustys Chili Team from Rustys at Blue took first place in the Texas Division judging, thereby automatically qualifying (due to the Texas Division being sanctioned as the Ontario Provincial Championship) to cook in Terlingua, Texas on the first weekend in November at the granddaddy of all chili cookoffs — The Original Terlingua International Frank X. Tolbert – Wick Fowler Memorial Championship. Joining them on the “Ontario Team” qualified for Terlingua was Wayne Kipp and his cooks from the Rotary Club of Meaford, who proved that they werent just at the cookoff to support a neighbouring Rotary Club! The judges selected their Squashbuckle Chili as 2nd Place winner in the Texas Division! Completing the Ontario contingent were Rick Sirianni and Nick “Mexico” Neidrauer and their Kaytoo Chili Team from Kaytoo Restaurant, who placed a very solid 3rd in the Texas Division.
The Peoples Choice tasters and voters selected perennial chiliheads, Joe Cosentino and Angelo Bevilaqua and their Pepperon Chili Team as their 2nd Place cooks in the Peoples Choice balloting, while 3rd Place went to newcomers who called themselves 6 Guys, 1 Pot and were led by Anthony Woodcroft. With over 800 tasters, it was a busy, but happy time in the plaza, and folks of all ages enjoyed the process.
There is much to recommend the chili cookoff. The food aspect is obvious. Finally however, it comes down to the chili cooks, who not only enjoy the cooking but put so much more into the day! With crazy, elaborate costumes and fantastic chili booths and silly, engaging antics the cooks, with their imagination and energy, are the ones who really make the day!
Sacha Matanowitsch and her Lumberchicks chili team constructed an elaborate “log cabin” to cook their two different chilis in one for each division. Featuring “logs” and hides and deer heads and many funny, quirky details, the booth earned top votes from the judges and they took home the trophy for Best Booth. Watch out, we understand the girls already have some “enhancements” in the works for next years booth!
When it came to costumes, nobody could top Phil Rushton and his Sailor Phils Pirate Chili team, who won the trophy for Best Costumes. Their fantastic shirts and hats and regalia were amazing, and when it came time to serve chili samples to the crowd (in exchange for a tasting kit ticket), there were comely Pirate “Wenches” with trays of samples.a great touch, and all adding to the fun of the day.
And speaking of fun, Thornbury Community Theatre took the prize for Most Entertaining chili team. Bev Byrne and her fellow cooks decided that, in honour of the 25th annual chili cookoff, they should “reprise” some of their favourite costumes from the past, for this crew has a long history of chili cooking! So there they were a “Chili Bee” from 2003, a “Tooters Chili Bar” girl from 2004, a 3-breasted Martian chili cook from the 90s sometime and “chili ghoul” from the long-distant past. Their Chili Stars team provided lots of laughs for the crowd.
Finally, with their outstanding finish in the Texas Division, Wayne Kipp and his Capt. Cooks Squashbucklers chili team from Meaford Rotary went home with the Rota-Chili Challenge trophy for the highest-placing Rotary chili team. (It should be noted that complete results are available on the Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary Clubs website www.tcrotary.ca. Just click on the Chili Cookoff link in the bottom left corner.)
What a way to celebrate “25 Years of Chili Madness”! Theres no wonder the cookoff was honoured this year as one of the Top 100 events in Ontario by Festivals and Events Ontario (FEO)! The Village was a-buzz all day with the fun and energy of the competing chili teams. And the wonderful interaction between cooks and spectators really represents the spirit of the event “good serious fun”. The fun that the cooks were having proved contagious the entire day was extremely upbeat and positive, producing precisely what was promised “a fun-filled family day”. Add to that the huge crowd and the terrific music provided by “Lemon Pepper Pickerel” all afternoon from the Village Stage, and one can understand the positive “vibe” of the day.
Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotarians are delighted with this years cookoff. The weather was spectacular, the crowd a record and the chili.delicious. As the day smoothly unfolded, it was obvious what a great partnership the local Rotary Club has with the Village at Blue Mountain. “We are so pleased with the wonderful support and cooperation of The Village staff. Its been a treat to work with Patti Kendall and her team!” said co-chair, Rotarian Ed Rogers.
The bottom line, after all the cooking and the hoopla, is that important funds were raised by the Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary Club funds that will be put to good use by the club on projects either here at home or overseas, including one of Rotary Internationals biggest priorities — the eradication of Polio. With the $355 million support and challenge from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary and its partners hope to soon be able to say that polio no longer exists in the world. Its one of many important causes that Rotary is pursuing.
So, thanks to many energetic and imaginative people, it was indeed another great “Chili Day in July” now on to the next quarter century of chili fun!
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For more information, contact: Gerry McGregor at 519-599-6469 or chili@tcrotary.ca
Photos will be posted on the Chili Cookoff website www.tcrotary.ca/chili over the next few days. If you need larger copies of any of the photos there, or wish any other photo, please contact Gerry McGregor.