Eighteen teams slaved over vats of aromatic chili, Jan. 21, as they faced off in the 28th annual Chili Cook Off.
The battle of flavours attracted swarms of people to the Jasper Activity Centre, where they were able to taste as many, or as few, of the chefs鈥� creations as they could stomach.
That wasn鈥檛 the case for the panel of local judges, however, as they had to taste all 18, carefully dissecting the flavours and textures of each and every chili before rating them on a variety of different attributes in order to select a winner.
After all was said and done鈥攁nd their faces were sufficiently stuffed鈥攖he judges chose the smoky wild boar and chorizo chili as the best of 2016.
Taking the prize and bragging rights was the team from Jasper Pizza Place.
The second place chili鈥攚ith pulled pork, green onions, cheese, whipped jalapeno cream and a cornbread muffin鈥攚ent to SunDog Tours. Third place went to Parks Canada鈥檚 team from the Palisades Stewardship Education Centre with their traditional, 鈥渘o gimmicks鈥� chili, made with chili powder, cumin, cayenne and cocoa.
This year鈥檚 people鈥檚 choice award winner鈥攖he team that netted the most votes from the crowd鈥攚as Sysco.
The prizes didn鈥檛 end there, though.
Beyond the mouthwatering chili, there were also elaborate booth displays to be judged.
This year鈥檚 first place booth was Coco鈥檚 Cafe鈥檚 鈥淔reaky Tiki鈥� bar with a larger-than-life tiki mascot, worn by Aaron Parcels, and a few hula girls behind the bar. Second place went to the Sawridge Inn and Conference Centre for its Simpson鈥檚 inspired booth and third place to Tourism Jasper for the 鈥淩oad Kill Cafe.鈥�
Nicole Veerman [email protected]
