Above left: Rachael Seim and her baby, Aitan, looked pretty happy with whatever they were eating at the chili cook-off at St. John’s Catholic Church on February 23. Above right: Grand Marais Lion Rosemary Lamson samples one of the 21 different kinds of chili at the event.
It takes a lot of judges to sample 21 different kinds of chili. This year, at the fourth annual Cook County Chili Cook-Off, competitors were judged by eight judges. “We didn’t want any one person to have to try 21 different chilis,” said Jamie Ryan, one of the organizers. He said 10 or 12 samples is a lot of food!
The basement of St. John’s Catholic Church was full of chili-ladling competitors and curious, hungry chili tasters on Saturday, February 23.
Distinct themes emerged among the top three winners of the two categories, judges’ choice and people’s choice.
In the judges’ choice category, last year’s winning team came in second this year, and the first- and third-place judges’ choice winners also topped the people’s choice category.
In the people’s choice category, “the top three winners were dead even for first place,” Ryan reported. The winning teams in the people’s choice category were Jeff and Bob Fenwick with “Hawaiian Chili,” Treg Axtell and Kevin Sutton with “Round-Up Chili,” and Colin Everson, Abbey Sutton, Justin Goldstein, and Kale Boomer with “Love and Bacon” (their two “secret” ingredients).
The judges’ favorite chili was Jeff and Bob Fenwick’s Hawaiian Chili (the father-son team has family ties in Hawaii). Coming in second were last year’s winners, Deb and Steve Veit, who gave last year’s recipe a new twist for this year’s competition. Third place went to Love & Bacon (well, who can resist either love or bacon?).
Denise Axtell won a basket filled with goodies worth $80 from the Gunflint Mercantile.
Proceeds from the fundraiser will be split evenly between the Cook County Food Shelf and Coldwater Foundation for Leadership and Community Development. Coldwater Foundation seeks to develop leaders and promote community transformation through youth programs, wilderness adventure, and community service work.
Jeff and Bob Fenwick of Grand Marais won first place in both the judges’ and the people’s choice categories for their Hawaiian chili. The spices they used came from Bob’s cousins in Honolulu, Hawaii, who own the Rainbow Drive-In, where their chili and rice plate has been popular since they opened the restaurant 50 years ago. The mix can be purchased at rainbowdrivein.com/.%5B/caption%5D
Coldwater Foundation Director Kevin Sutton reported that the cook-off, which he described as “a community event organized by Coldwater Foundation,” raised just a little over $2,000.
Ryan estimated that close to 30 businesses and organizations helped with the cook-off. Others involved in putting on the event were Gunflint Mercantile owner Chelsea Lueck, Kevin and Jen Sutton and Alisa Finkle of the Coldwater Foundation, and Plamena and Jeremy Chase of The Pie Place.
The judges were Rich Fortunato, Cathy Quinn, Kathy Rice, Mark Marxen, Park Johnson, Tyler Howell, Heidi Jacobson, and Gayle Anderson.
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Above left: Steve and Deb Veit were winners for a second year in a row, this time coming in second in the judges’ choice category with a slightly different version of last year’s first-place recipe. Above middle: Printha Moe and Helena Blake presented their chili and muffins beautifully, with smiles and a bouquet of flowers. Above right: Levi Axtell presented his chili formally. Perhaps he should have won a best-dressed-competitor award.
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