MONDAY - September 10, 2007

DOWN EAST REGIONAL

And MAINE STATE results,

Some Maine Numbers

1 weekend of "Back to Back" chili cooking put on by the Wells Chamber of Commerce;

2 chances to qualify for the WCCC in Omaha, NE;

3 seasons of Maine weather experienced in only 45 minutes!;

4 hundred quarts of people's choice chili handed out;

5 categories of cash prizes for the cooks;

6 weeks the Chamber's new leadership had to pull-off this event;

7 times a day you could include lobster in a meal or snack;

8 hours of hard work by the cooks, from set-up to break-down;

9 hours of even harder play, from break-down to fall-down;

10 states represented, not including "Coach Don", from CA;

And best of all…. 0 glitches from the Chamber's new leadership team, who were definitely behind the 8 ball with so little time to organize everything. They did a great job.

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A huge thanks to Ted, Eleanor and Lorraine and the rest of the Chamber. This was their first event, and they did a great job keeping this event alive.

And a great, big thank you to Steve and Audrey Falkowski and Sue Aitken for immeasurable help in the judges tent....Audrey and Sue on scorekeeping and Steve running circles around me making sure everything else worked.

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This is by no means the biggest cook-off in the ICS, but think about some of the numbers: 23 cooks, a chief judge and a scorekeeper traveled a total of 27,500+/- miles for this event. That's an average of 1,100 miles per person. 96 quarts of competition chili, 16 pints of salsa, 100 gallons of people's choice chili….airfares, car rentals, gasoline, hotel and bar tabs!!!! And the hours upon hours and miles put in by the new Chamber....and they aren't used to us! Too soon to know how the Chamber did with fund-raising. The weather certainly did not make for a picture-perfect weekend.

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The Official Results:

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Down East Regional: Saturday, September 8

Best Booth: Bob Smith ME ?

People's Choice: Bill Strain NH

SALSA: 1st Dave Schulman CT

VERDE: 3^rd Kim Eckley MD

2^nd Wendy Hennessey NH

1^st Wes Carlson IL

RED: 3^rd Ghon Eckley MD

2^nd Mario Saccoccio CT

1^st Les Walter MD

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Maine State: Sunday, September 9

Best Booth: Mario Saccoccio CT

People's Choice: Mario Saccoccio CT

SALSA 1^st Jim Miller PA

VERDE 3^rd Kim Eckley MD

2^nd Tod Goede NH

1^st Rich Omerza PA

RED 3^rd Scott Navaroli MA

2^nd Ghon Eckley MD

1^st Skip Cooley NV

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Thanks to all who helped made this cook-off so much fun.

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Joe Harvey

Chief Judge

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27th Annual Mile High Regional

The weather was warm, at times windy, and with a huge crowd of over 7000 people, the cookoff went off without a hitch in Community Park in Superior, Colorado. The Chili Fest event was a huge success with lots of great cooks, a restaurant division, food and vendor booths, and a separate "holding tank" (2 - 10 x 10 tents put together with rope around it) for the judges to gather in and await the judges meeting.

Special thanks go out to Martin Toth and all his very special volunteers who kept the festival going all day. This was the largest crowd ever, with all proceeds raised going to the Colorado Fallen Firefighters Foundation, and the largest amount of cooks ever, who also dolled out many gallons of chili each to "feed" the hungry chili sampling crowd.

As Chief Judge, I want to give special thanks to my wife, Kathy, who was my Chief Scorekeeper, and who very patiently was training Martin and volunteer Michael Milner on the proper procedures of scorekeeping and how a big cookoff should be run. I also want to thank another volunteer, Mike Phelps, who managed to keep the judging tent in order, preparing all the tables, spoons, drinks, and keeping the crowd of spectators out of the judging area.

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Now for the results:

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SALSA - 13 ENTRIES

3rd Caleb Weiss

2nd Paul Cordova

1st Erika Knutson

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CHILI VERDE - 20 ENTRIES

3rd Sue Dudzik

2nd George Lott

1st Andy Gatschet

RED CHILI - 25 ENTRIES

3rd Danny Long

2nd Hank Wedemeyer

1st Eunice Dortch

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BOB PLAGER

CHIEF JUDGE

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