International Chili Society

CINCO de MARZO - A CHILLY CHILI STROLL - MARCH 5, 2011

It was a lovely day for cooking chili in the mountain region of NH. A bit chilly, with some snow flurries in the morning, but temperatures stayed above freezing and even the bit of drizzle later in the day didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits. We had a great turn out of cooks for a first time cook off. We would like to thank Mark Mills, a local from the North Conway area, who decided to join the ICS and try his hand at cooking competition chili. We were one cook short for Chili Verde and Mark stepped up this morning to enter the category and make us a qualifier.  A thank you also to “Mad” Mike Freedman for helping to get the word out, and to all the cooks he contacted who came up to help make sure we made our numbers.

The Chamber of Commerce did a great job in providing everything we needed. There were a few glitches as with any first time cook off, but nothing that wasn’t taken care of quickly. I understand they bought out all the plastic spoons in every store in the village!

And now for the winners:

Salsa:

4^th: Vicki Tankis, MA

3^rd: Jack Cowell, CT

2^nd: Jim Heywood, NY

1^st: Mike Freedman, CT

Verde:

4^th: Jack Cowell, CT

3^rd: Dave Schulman, CT

2^nd: Rick LaFrance, MA

1^st: Mike Freedman, CT

Red:

5^th: Ray Barry, NY

4^th: Judi Omerza, PA

3^rd: Kathy Brunelle, RI

2^nd: Jerry Buma, MA

1^st: Vicki Tankis, MA (who beat Dad by 4 points)

-Mary Alice Kropp, Scorekeeper