Tasty results at Jaycees Chili Cook-off during Fall Into Arts Festival

The Spine Tingling Chili Cookers from Wayne Chiropractic took the top People's Choice Award for the second year in a row, at Saturday's second annual Kennett Jaycees Chili Cook Off, during the Fall Into Arts Festival. Embracing a farm-to-table mindset, the Spine Tingling Chili Cookers used lots of locally-grown vegetables in their award-winning chili. Dr. Chancellor Wayne said the team also chopped all the veggies Saturday morning, including tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, green peppers and three types of chilis. The recipe also featured fresh meats. Dr. Wayne said the only ingredient that came from a jar was the tomato sauce.

The Spine Tingling Chili Cookers also used a cooking demo approach to land first place in the Showmanship judging category. The team demonstrated each step of their cooking process, explaining each step for prep and cooking. Place settings were arranged for the judges, who sat and enjoyed a bowl of chili, while watching the Chili Cookers present each of their recipe ingredients. They also demonstrated their technique for cooking chili in a cast-iron kettle, over a charcoal fire. The Chili Cookers were the only team using a cast-iron kettle on Saturday. The other teams used gas burners. Wayne described the technique as an almost a guaranteed insurance policy against burning chili, since cast-iron provides such a steady, evenly-distributed heat during the cooking process.

Kennett Police Department (KPD) Public Information Officer, Tim Trowbridge, had this to say about Team KPD's first-place finish in the prestigious Blind Judging category: "It took us weeks to finalize our recipe. Each night after work, the officers would get together and try different chilis. After weeks and weeks of painstaking research, tastings and general turmoil, we just decided to use my wife, Shawnee's, recipe." Tongue-and-cheek aside, Trowbridge said they did change a few things, however. "Shawnee does not like beans. Much to Shawnee's dismay, though, we added two types of beans, and a secret hot sauce. Other than that, it was pretty much just us adding different things, on the fly, as we cooked. Team KPD included Trowbridge, Deputy Chief Johnny Dennis, Cpl. Mark Dennis, KPD Community Outreach Director, Limmie Pulliam, and Shawnee Trowbridge. With the noted operatic tenor, Pulliam, onboard, it was easy landing second place in Showmanship. Pulliam delivered an operatic version of the reality TV show, "Cops," theme, "Bad Boys, Bad Boys," with Trowbridge and Mark Dennis on back-up vocals and Deputy Chief Dennis on the spoons. Needless to say, the audience went wild for the performance. KPD also participated in last year's Jaycees Chili Cook Off. "We don't want to discuss those results," quipped Trowbridge.

The Heritage Habaneros team from Heritage Nursing Center (HNC) also scored three prizes on Saturday...second place, in both the Blind Judging and People's Choice categories, and third place in Showmanship. HNC Outreach Coordinator, Melanie Folkes, said the team created a southwest, taco-inspired chili recipe, featuring black beans, refried beans and chili beans. Decorating the team tent in a coordinating southwest theme helped the Heritage Habaneros land their showmanship award. Folkes said the team celebrated its wins by cooking up a fresh pot of their award-winning chili first thing yesterday morning, to share with residents and staff.

All teams received ribbons as prizes.

The Kennett Jaycees thanked all the teams for participating on Saturday, as well as the festival-goers who tasted and voted on the chili recipes. The group hopes to secure even more teams for next year's cook off. The Jaycees still have a few souvenir chili mugs available for sale, at $5 apiece. To make a purchase, contact the Kennett Chamber of Commerce, at 573-888-5828.