First time contestants win big at UHCL chili cook-off
UHCL’s Student Life Office hosted the 27th annual Chili Cook-Off Saturday, April 2, from noon to 4 p.m. The annual tradition is one of the hottest events at UHCL drawing a high number of competing cooking teams and hungry local judges.
In addition to the chili competition, the event included a pie-in-the face booth, golfing competition, DJ, selfie contest and Hunter the Hawk’s third birthday party.
To attend the event was free and open to the public. For those wishing to buy a tasting kit, which included tickets to taste and vote for their favorite chili, best spirit and cook’s choice, the cost was $4 with a UHCL ID and $5 without one.
Teams had the chance to win in multiple categories by both popular vote and judge’s vote. The judged vote was based on a process described as “secret shopper judges.”
All teams went creative with distinctive ingredients to help their chili standout above the competition. Some of the ingredients used include: pineapple, pork, smoked brisket and turkey meat. Teams attempted to win the best booth and best spirit popular vote categories with clever team names and themes including Netflix and Chili, the Bahama Mamas, and It’s a Small World.
The Student Council for Exceptional Children (SCEC) chose a superhero theme for their booth.
“Good teachers are real superheroes,” said Paula Jones, president of the SCEC.
The Hawk Leadership Institute (HLI) went with an undead theme and changed their name for the day to the Zombie Leadership Institute.
Madi Sults, environmental science major and captain of the HLI team, came up with the idea for a zombie theme because they had a couple of makeup artists on the team, who made them look like they were part of the undead.
When asked what the chili was made with, Sults replied, “brains!”
Many teams used a common ingredient in their chili, beans. One team wanted to stand out from the rest by letting everyone know what was not in their chili.
The Office of Counseling Services used the team name No Beans About It to remind judges they didn’t make their Texas chili like the other booths. This was the first year Cynthia Cook, executive director of Counseling, Health and Career Services and director of Counseling Services, competed in the cook-off.
“I actually grew up in the Midwest where everyone puts beans in, and I hated it, so when I moved to Texas and learned that Texas chili doesn’t have beans I was quite excited to adopt that tradition and keep the beans out,” Cook said.
Cook and the counseling services staff were surprised and ecstatic to win at their first chili cook-off.
“Our offices were very excited to win the best chili by popular vote,” Cook said. “We haven’t had a team before but we’ve wanted to, so it made all the effort worthwhile and the whole day was a lot of fun.”
Another first-time team winner was the Office of Admissions with the team name Bahama Mamas.
“Can we have seconds?” was the response the Bahama Mamas heard the most throughout the day.
The cook-off provided attendees with other entertainment in addition to the chili booths.
David Rachita, interim Dean of Students, was one of the first to get a pie in the face.
“It was my honor and pleasure to allow people to throw pies in my face,” Rachita said.
“As Dean of Students, I’m not always the bearer of good news,” Rachita said. “So if it brought joy to people’s lives to have the opportunity to throw pies in my face, I’m glad I brought the joy and made it a good day for all.”
Patrick Cardenas, assistant director of student life, found the event to be a success. Last year’s chili cook-off was postponed due to inclement weather, but this year the weather was perfect for early April.
“The weather was very cooperative this year, so we had an amazing sunny day,” Cardenas said.
This year, the location of the event was moved from the north lawn to the street.
“We found it was very successful to have the cook-off on actual concrete and as a street style fair,” Cardenas said. “People could walk up and down the street and check out the booths.”
This year’s popular vote winners were: The Grand CDMA for Cook’s Choice, Zombie Leadership Institute for Best Booth Spirit and No Beans About It for Best Chili.
The judged winners were: Netflix and Chili for Best Booth, Bahama Mamas won 1st place for Best Chili, It’s a Small World won 2nd place for Best Chili, Zombie Leadership Institute won 3rd place for Best Chili, and Netflix and Chili won the SGA Spirit award.
Congratulations winners, and congrats, Nathan, for a well written article.