WHALLONSBURG — An estimated 150 aficionados, judges, and/or those who were just plain hungry, sampled a variety of chili dishes produced by professional and amateur chefs at the Whallonsburg Grange.
The fare included a variety of meat and vegetarian chilis with an assortment of flavorings.
All the recipes involved locally produced meats, vegetables and garnishments for this “celebration of our community food growers.”
Due to the regulations of Essex County Public Health there were only three entries which could be offered to the public as they were prepared in the grange’s kitchen. The other submissions were tasted by the judges. To avoid any semblance of favoritism, the adjudicators were not informed of the names of the cooks.
After a strenuous session that titillated the taste buds of the officials, chefs Ellie Goff and Debbie Schneider teamed up to garner first places in the following categories: Best Veggie; Judges Favorite; and Best Meat which they also shared with co-winners Elaine Jordan, and Donnie Christian.
Todd Goff’s offering was deemed to be Most Innovative, while Peter Burns of Mountain Dog Restaurant in Westport proved to be the Crowd Favorite.
Ellie Goff, one of the organizers from Essex Initiatives along with Sheila Sullivan, said: “We started this event last year with the intention to bring something special to the community and to continue to support local farms during a time when not much else is happening. For this event the farms produced the meat and vegetables, and of course local maple syrup.”
Sullivan emphasized their thankfulness for the grants which assisted in the purchasing of the food, the entertainment, and for making it a free event.
Explaining the judging, she said: “We had nine different chilies judged by categories such as aroma, taste, and texture which were given ratings of from one to five.
Three were made here in our certified kitchen and the others were made at home and were not for public consumption but were also judged.”
While guests were dining, the Too Tall String Band strummed and sang which added another dimension to the festivities.
The festivities were sponsored by Essex Initiatives and the Whallonsburg Grange with Glenn and Carol Pearsall of Adirondack Foundation underwriting the event as well as the Kindling Award of the Adirondack Foundation for making it free.