The champion chili cook at the Moose Jaw Elks annual Chili Challenges was a repeat.
Kelsi Gieni of Moose Jaw jumped up with glee when her chili was announced as the best by three judges.
She hopped up again when her chili won the People’s Choice award.
Gieni also won the People’s Choice Award at the 2023 Chili Challenge.
The library worker at Sask.Polytechnic had never entered her chili before deciding to give it a shot last year.
She attributes the winning chili to a secret ingredient which she declined to share with anyone.
“It’s my recipe I developed by myself,” she said after the award was made.
“Last year I thought it was the corn that won it but this year there were two other entries with corn. So that was not it.’’
Gieni was so grateful to win the contest twice.
“I love cooking. I have cooked for a long time. The family loves my cooking.”
She said both her father and mother are good cooks.
Judges and chili consumers had seven different varieties to eat.
Consumers picked what they liked for the People’s Award.
The three judges, Bob Travale, Joyce Walter and Ron Walter sampled each batch of chili rating it for colour, aroma, flavour, texture and heat.
None of the entries had that much heat.
“It’s different,’’ said Travale, judging the chili challenge for the first time. “Some stand out more than others.’’
Judging “all depends on the individual’s taste.’’
About 40 or so visitors came to the challenge. For $10 they got a sample of each entry and then could have as much of their favourites as they wanted.
The challenge also involved a silent auction, 50-50, and gift certificate draw.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
