MONDAY - December 10, 2007

South Mississippi Regional

Chili Cookoff

Dec. 8 2007

Pascagoula, MS.

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The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce in Pascagoula, MS. was the producer of the first ever ICS Sanctioned South Mississippi Regional.

The cookoff was held in the lot next to the very beautiful chamber offices. While the judging was done in the chambers conference center.

Carla Todd (Chamber President) and Linda Johnson (Vice President) and the rest of their staff need to be highly praised for all of their work and efforts, as well as their significant others who helped in volunteering.

Those include Ling Burch, Sherrell Harris, and Samantha Catchot.

I want to thank Archie Voda (Chief Scorekeeper) for all his work as well as many of the Jackson County Chamber Members that helped in making this probably one of the most well organized cookoff that I have worked on. This was truly a pleasure and shows how cookoffs can be presented.

Not to mention, this is their very first cookoff ever.......WOW!

The cookoff was tied in with Pascagoula's annual "Downtown for the Holidays." This was held on Friday evening from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM with just a whole lot of events and entertainment for the whole family.

They even had a snow machine and sleigh rides for the children!

Saturday morning was the annual Christmas Parade and after that was over, everyone came over to the chili cookoff for more entertainment and of course plenty of very tasty and delicious Salsa and Chili.

I cannot say enough about the folks at the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and all they accomplished.

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SALSA 11 Contestants

8 Judges

4th = Mike Freedman 6 pts (Enfield, CT.)

3rd = Doug Roy 6 pts (Clearwater, FL)...won tie break

2nd = Mark Curry 8 pts (Ocean Springs, MS.)

1st = David Mallory 8 pts (Kitts Hill, OH.)...won tie break

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CHILI 20 Contestants

14 Judges

4th = James Boswell 8 pts (Jacksonville, FL.)

3rd = Sharee Broussard 8 pts (Mobile, AL.)...won tie break

2nd = Jim Deere 10 pts (Pana, IL.)

1st = Mike (Mad Mike) Freedman 15 pts (Enfield, CT.)

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What a great group of Chili and Salsa contestants we had!

Special thanks goes to Mary Parker and Sharee Broussard for stepping up and helping us to get enough cooks for the Red competition.

We were also very honored to have as our lead judge the 2007 Red Chili World Champion, Jerry Buma..

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Included in the contestants was our 2007 Verde World Champion, Kimberly Mallory.

To say the least, it was a nice ride home for David and Kimberly

And about our Champion....."Mad Mike," who would have thought that Mike could be lost for words???

Believe it or not there is another side of Mike that is very humble and charming!

We all had so much fun over the weekend that we have titled this cookoff as "The Secret of the South"

Mark your calendars for the 2nd weekend in December next year and join in the fun.

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Congratulation to all the contestants.......They are all winners.