Recent chili cookoff

A couple days ago, I had the pleasure of being asked to guest judge a local chili cook off in Statesville, NC. It was for the CASI - Chili Appreciation Society. They have competitions nation wide to raise money for charity.

According to their web site, "The Chili Appreciation Society International, Inc.'s mission is to promote chili and raise money for charity. We are involved in over 500 chili cook offs per year and raise over $1,000,000.00 annually for local charities."

My buddy Kevin of Tar Heel Catering invited me. We hung out, talked about food and met some awesome people. I learned some really cool tricks and, at the end of it all, judged 3 types of salsas, 3 types of beans and 28 types of chili! Needless to say, we were pretty full, but it was for a good cause. Loads of money was raised for charity and I met a few new friends. (not too mention a free sample of Kevin's pulled pork BBQ and a bottle of his secret BBQ sauce, lol).

A family that came all the way from Texas won, which was great as they had my favorite.

Check out these pictures;