Holmlund’s, Seven Gen rule annual chili cook-off

A hungry lunchtime crowd of more than 200 people flocked to the Legion here yesterday for the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce’s Great Canadian Chili Cook-off and Cake Roulette, with long-time participant but first-time winner Holmlund Financial named as the 2009 champs.
“We’ve gone in it for quite a few years and it was nice to win,” said Susan Bodnarchuk of Holmlund Financial, adding the team said they would be bringing their “Hot and Wild Chili” to the table—and it seems the judges had a taste for spice.

Bodnarchuk said she had to thank Bruce Holmlund for coming back out of retirement once again for the chili cook-off, as well as her husband, Don, for helping with cooking, chopping, and preparation.
She also thanked Lois Holmlund for finding the recipe for the team.
Bodnarchuk said their “Best Chili Award” plaque, complete with a chili pepper on it, will be hung up at the Scott Street office.
“Everyone here was thrilled, so I brought back a sample for them,” she noted.
Having participated in nearly every chili cook-off since the Fort Frances Times first inaugurated it, Bodnarchuk said the event once again was worthwhile.
“We always have a good time with it,” she enthused. “It’s fun. All of the people come out.
“I think the people enjoy trying all of the different chilis, as well.
“It’s an all-around good event.”
The Seven Generations Education Institute, first-timers for the event, and their “Stewed Ent Chili” was deemed the second-best chili by the panel of judges, but was named People’s Choice winners by members of the public who taste-tested all of the 11 varieties and then voted for their top three favourites.
“It’s great,” said Ryan Parisien, who teaches the culinary skills chef certificate program at Seven Generations and who served up their chili along with students Trevor Iserhoff and Derek Turcotte.
“The class was really, really excited,” Parisien added. “It was a lot of work, but we put it together and they really enjoyed themselves.”
Parisien said the recipe, which was Iserhoff’s, was decided upon last week after his class of nine students held a chili cook-off of their own.
At that time, a panel of judges decided which chili was deserving to showcase at the Chamber’s cook-off.
Parisien noted the chili cook-off was a learning experience for this students, and it tied into their course.
“It was originally set up as a research project, where they had to find a chili recipe and they had to convert the chili recipe to eight litres, so they get practice on yields and those types of things,” he explained.
“So they all came back with their chili recipes, we brought in the stock for it, and they all cooked their chili recipes.
“We had our own panel of judges, and the winning chili from that went [to the Legion],” he added.
Parisien said participating in the cook-off also was good promotion for the culinary skills chef certificate program, which is a partnership through Canadore College in North Bay.
“This is the second year running, so it is relatively brand new,” he remarked.
“It’s a really, really excellent program,” he added. “It’s well-rounded teaching them what it is to be a chef.”
Meanwhile, chili judges Tannis Drysdale, B93•FM morning host Christa Pare, and Coun. Sharon Tibbs chose 2008 champs Causeway General Insurance as the third-best chili with their “Return of Tailgate Caution Chili.”
The People’s Choice winners were Seven Generations (58 votes), Gillons’ Insurance Brokers’ “The Red Hot Gillons Peppers” (28 votes), and Edward Jones “Up It Chili” (21 votes).
Other teams that participated included:
•B93•FM—“FM Good Chili”;
•Fort Frances High School—“Red Dragons”;
•Fort Frances High School—“Big Daddy’s Chili”;
•Northland Distributing (International Falls)—“Ice Box Chili”;
•Rainycrest—“Fountain of Youth Chili”; and
•TD Canada Trust—“TD Trust Chili You Can Trust.”
Chamber manager Anthony Mason said the event was a success once again.
“It was steady all of the way through, and everybody emptied their four gallons of chili,” he noted.
The event, which also featured a cake roulette and collection of non-perishable food items for local food banks, started at 11:30 a.m. and wound down by about 1:30 p.m.