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Third Annual Chili Cook-off Championship

Dicks Sporting Goods - Hamburg, NY

October 8, 2005

First Place Pot of Gold
On Saturday 10/08 the WNY DOS gathered for the third annual chili cook-off championship. We had a cloudy cool day which is perfect for a Chili Day. We had a good turnout of participants and spectators at the contest, held in front of Dicks Sporting Goods, at the McKinley Mall. I hope next year we have many more contestants, as this was a good time and friendships were very evident.

I'm happy to say that cleanliness was the word of the day. All sites were well organized, but to keep within Health Department regulations in the future, we need to improve a little on clean up gear.

Everyone did extremely well. A few points may have been lost due to tough close judgments, but over all, in most cases, the winners won by small margins.

Generally the competition was very close, except for the top award in the sweet chili competition. The spreads between the winners in the hot division was about one point for each place. The second and third sweet chili winners were separated by a point. The eventual winner in the sweet division won by a very big margin.

When the final judging took place, the hot division winner was Ron Wagner followed by Marty Odachowski and John Jones. The sweet division was won by Pat Quinn followed by Marty and Alexis Lang. The overall "Chili King" for 2005 was Pat Quinn.

The prizes this year included a solid collection of cooking iron provided by Camp Chef. The grand champ won a pop-up canopy provide by Dick's  and a numbered commemorative edition bean pot  from Camp Chef. This year's top winners also had engraved glass mugs presented to them. Let's hope we don't see them show up on ebay.

I thank all for coming and hope many more members come out next year.

Bob Lennartz
"the Chili King emeritus"