What a day!

Well, it didn't go exactly as we might have hoped, but in other ways it exceeded all expectations!!!!!

After a delicious breakfast with lots of other chili cooks that are also staying at the Residence Inn, we headed down to Magic Island to begin the day.  We unloaded and headed down the hill to the venue - it was a really beautiful morning and promised to be a sunny, warm day.



The view from the truck of the venue

Next up for Michael was the cooks meeting and for me was to get started on setting up the Freddy Beach Chili Co. booth.  I had bought 2 different fabrics and made a table cloth with the red & green chili cloth and a large diamond of white with red maple leafs to centre our booth.  Scoop & Save has just enough chili party supplies to help decorate, and with a few extra borrowed items from Wendy's stash, I thought we had a pretty nice looking set up.  



Our logo proudly displayed



Our first ever booth!

Michael quickly got down to business measuring out his spices and organizing his stove and utensils.  Before we knew it it was 9am, and the shout came out "Chili cooks, light your fires"!  All across the field you could see the fires lighting and smell the meat start to simmer. For the next 3 hours it was stir, add spices, taste, smell, add this, add that, taste, stir, and taste again. 



Measuring his spices



Looks like Chili to me!



The Freddy Beach team!

Seasoning his cup

 At 12 noon the call came out for cooks to turn in their chili to the judges tent.  All was now in the hands of the judges.  A quick kiss for luck and off Michael and Rick went with their submissions.

The final product

Heading to the judges tent

Time to relax and wait for the verdict - at least for Michael & Rick.  Wendy was just gearing up to compete in the afternoon Homestyle competition and I was busy at our booth handing out chili samples to the public and smiling and chatting up judges for the booth & showmanship competitions.  There were only 3 Canadian entrants, so there were lots of references to beaver and moose meat in our chili, and "eh" just never gets old with Americans....meanwhile Michael was hanging with his new friends - twin brothers from Louisiana who were introducing him to their specialty - Apple Pie Moonshine.  Apparently it's a delicacy...



Sippin' Moonshine

  

Mikey's new best buddies from Louisiana



At 4pm it was time for Wendy to submit her white chicken chili for the homestyle event.  This is the first year ever for this competition so no one knows what to expect.  We know of at least 3 other cooks submitting white chili, a few greens and lots of reds.  Judges for this event come from outside the ICS, there are no real rules - just what tastes good to you and what you grew up with.

The next couple of hours were long - waiting for the results.  A lot of tasting other cooks chili submissions and just chatting with people from far and wide, quite an interesting group of people gather for this event.  Here's a few pics I took during the wait.

Uncle Rick's truck

Finally just after 6:30 all of the judging had been completed and the stage was set up with the trophy's and plaques.  To start day off they began with the Best Best booth prize.  It was great to hear them call out the 3rd place winner - RICHARD CHAUVIN!!! 

And then what came next blew us away - yep, I'm serious folks - 2nd place for Best Booth, complete with a plaque and a cheque for $200 goes to - MICHAEL LESPERANCE!!!!!!!!!

There were 69 cooks in the last chance cookoff, with Michael being the only first time cook (which was mentioned from the stage).  And while we do know that many of the major booth decorators arrive today and tomorrow for the green and red chili competitions, it was still pretty awesome to win and be called to stage at our very first competition ever, and it being WORLD's is crazy!

But wait peeps, there's more!!  Just as they were walking off stage the next awards were called.  Starting with 3rd place, the award for Showmanship in the Last Chance Cookoff, complete with a plaque and a cheque for $100 goes to, you guessed it! - MICHAEL LESPERANCE!!!!

I was losing my s#%t trying to get to the front to get pictures and burst out laughing when I heard a woman say "yeah, well I bet his chili sucks" - lady, there was no ruining this moment!  We were thrilled!

Next up were the Homestyle awards and it was great to hear WENDY CHAUVIN being called up for 3rd place BEST BOOTH, a bit of double dipping by the Chauvin's with the same booth for 2 seperate events!

Michael & Rick on stage after winning Best Booth awards

Michael heading off stage just before being called again

Back for the Showmanship award

 Crazy, wha?

 Yeah, I'll take a little credit too!!!!

He looks pleased!

$300 American

 The winners with their awards

 Yeah, he doesn't seem to excited!

 So for a few moments we forgot about the real reason we were there - to compete for a chance to cook in Sunday's Red Chili final.  So next up were the 10 names of the cooks that would have that chance.  With 69 cooks, there was 1 chance in 7 of making it through, we were all hoping those odds would be in our favour.
Unfortunately, it was not to be.  Neither Michael's nor Rick's names were called...........

The agony of defeat...

And since they all won together, the streak remained and they all lose together! With the next announcement of the top 5 winners in the homestyle competiion, unfortunately Wendy was not called either.  However, Tom Pardikes, a chili friend from Michigan won the top prize for his pot of green chili, so congrats to him!

 

All in all it was crazy, fabulous day - while there was disappointment in not having winning pots of chili, the sting was certainly softened by the excitement of making it to the stage and really being welcomed by the chili community.  The one good thing about neither qualifying for red - it means both will be able to judge on Sunday (if either had gone through, the other would not have been able to as there are rules regarding family members judging).  So Michael is excited at the opportunity to put his new judging skills to work.

 

We headed out for dinner at Appleby's and back to the hotel for some prep work for the next competitions and an early night after a pretty tiring and exciting day.

 

Today is another day......Rick is competing in the Chili Verde and Wendy in Salsa.  Michael is back to his "bitch" duties for the South of the Border team!  He and Andrew will make sure that all runs smoothly!

 

The weather unfortunately has made a turn for the worse - we are expecting cold temperatures, rain and wind today.  Being the fair weathered chili girl I am, I'll hanging back today and plan to get in some shopping and sight seeing!  I'll be back to the venue in time to help with handing out the giveaway chili to the crowds and of course to wait for the results of the day.  I'll be back as soon as I can with what happens!