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2016 Area Fall Festivals
Lincoln Daily News
September 13, 2016
By Nila Smith
On Saturday morning a fall festival tradition returned
in Mount Pulaski, the annual chili cook-off. In this
competition, cooks prepare their best recipe at home,
and bring in large crock-pots full for judges as well as
the audience to taste and rank.
Judges this year were Shaun Tyson, Corey Leonard
and Jose Toto. The announcer for the day was Lisa
Leonard. This was a change from previous years, as
normally Corey would be the announcer. He told the
audience that this year he had commented that in all
the times he has helped with this event, he never got
to taste any of the chili. Thus, he was made a judge.
The crock pots of chili were set out on the stage area
with volunteers dishing up the soups into small tasting
cups. The judges and audience were assembled in
front of the Calm Creek Café and the Salt Creek Attic.
Audience members were invited to pay to taste at the
event. In turn they were given a spoon and a scoring
sheet.
One-by-one, each of the nine chili entries were
brought out and served to the judges and audience
participants.
The judges were to rank the top three entries, while
the audience was to choose only one, their personal
favorite.
When everyone was finished, the third place winner
was Dustin Murphy. Dustin was also the People’s
Choice winner for the day.
The second place winner was Matt Presswood.
And the first place winner was Julie Bobell. Julie was
awarded the handmade, Best Chili trophy and accepted
it with her son.
Matt and Julie Bobell wins
Mount Pulaski Chili Cook-off