MONDAY - Sept. 15, 2008

Winners of the PA state

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Salsa

1 Rob Wilson PA

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Verde

3 Christine Johnson PA

2 Joe Muzic PA

1 Janie Bauer VA

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Red

5 Nathan Graham

4 Christine Johnson PA

3 Carrie Lenz- Parker VA

2 Doug Johnson PA

1 Richie Omerza PA

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This is a back to back win at Pa State for Richie.

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Ghon Eckley

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Maine Back to Back 2008
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Saturday, Downeast Regional.
Shorts, sandals, shades and sunshine.
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About 2500 people flocked to Wells Harbor Park on Saturday to sample chili.
Eleanor Vadenais and the rest of the Wells Chamber of Commerce were ready and welcomed them all.
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It went down this way;
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Booth/Showmanship: Mario Saccocio, Mad Hatter Chili; Plaque and $50
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People's Choice Chili: Mario Saccocio, Mad Hatter Chili; Plaque and $500
Mario beat the odds-on, local, favorite restaurant, for the honor. Good for Mario.
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Salsa;
3rd place: Honorable mention: George Holmeyer
2nd place: Honorable mention: Mike Merola
1st place: Plaque & $50: Dave Schulman
Hat trick for Dave Schulman. Great work, Dave.
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Green Chili;
3rd place: Honorable mention: the good doctor, Dick Dowling
2nd place: Honorable mention: Les Walter
1st place: Plaque & $100: Mike Kropp. A better ride home for Mike, for sure.
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Red Chili;
3rd place: Honorable mention: Mike Ford, traveling from CA to ME. Thank you Mike and Bonnie.
2nd place: Honorable mention: once again, the good doctor Dick Dowling
1st place: Plaque & $200: Judy Omerza
Hat trick for Judy Omerza. Great work, Judy.
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The crowd was voracious and cleaned-out the chili cooks of people's choice, early.
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Sunday, Maine State.
Wind, rain, sweatshirts, slickers, ponchos, umbrellas, hip boots.....
(I needed, but refused to put on wool mittens!!). Hey...we're in Maine!
It started out very wet and very windy, but ended up, just overcast.
The crowd was smaller than usual, because of the weather, but at least we didn't run out of people's choice chili.
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Booth/Showmanship: Mario Saccocio, Mad Hatter Chili; Plaque and $50
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People's Choice Chili: Mario Saccocio, Mad Hatter Chili; Plaque and $500
Mario beat everyone for the honor. Good for him.....again.
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Salsa;
3rd place: Honorable mention: Kim Mallory
2nd place: Honorable mention: Tracy Navaroli
1st place: Plaque & $50: Mike Merola
Mike's first time at the WCCC. Good for him!
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Green Chili;
3rd place: Honorable mention: George Holmeyer
2nd place: Honorable mention: Doctor Dick "please do not congratulate me on second place" Dowling.
1st place: Plaque & $100: Les Walters
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Red Chili;
3rd place: Plaque & Honorable mention: Doctor Dick "do not even think about congratulating me on third place" Dowling.
2nd place: Plaque & Honorable mention: Mike Ford (he beat Doc on a tie breaker) and it was Mike's 44th second place finish this year...probably pretty much the same as Doc!)
1st place: Plaque & $200: Les Walters
A fine day for Les. Good for him. A half trick!! ;)
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Congratulations to all.
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And a sincere thank you the CA cooks....Mike and Bonnie Ford and Don Hammes, who traveled so far and spent so much to support this cookoff. And, we had cooks from NJ, PA, OH, and all of the six New England states. A lot of money was pumped into the Wells economy by the traveling cooks, and I thank you all for that.
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Lastly, and by NO means leastly, the invaluable help of Audrey Falkowski as Scorekeeper, Steve Falkowski as "what else can I do for you, Joe?" super-wrangler, Kat Freedman working with Audrey, and Jerry Buma, Dave Sculman, Scoot & Tracy, the Mad One and all the other cook-judges who helped me get through the day. They all made my job that much easier.
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Overall, a much lower number of cooks, than usual. Already qualified?....OK, it's late in the season. The economy.... It's not pretty up here in the northeast. The prize structure? The Chamber does not have bottom-less pockets. But, they would like to know what to do recreate the original turnout. Could you please let me know why, if you were a "regular" at Maine, what caused you to miss this year? No details.....just: already qualified....the economy....prize structure. I need your help to keep one of the prettiest venues in chili cooking alive, as a back-to-back.
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Thanks,
Joe Harvey
Chief Judge

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Town of Superior Regional

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Perfect weather allowed the Town of Superior, Colorado to hold their biggest and best ever 8th Annual Chili Fest Chili Cookoff. With a crowd estimated at over 8000 people, they descended upon the cooks after 3:00 PM. With rain the day before, the cookoff was moved from the grass fields to the parking lots, which proved to be better for the event.

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The event was from 3:00 - 7:00 PM, and cooks gathered and set up by 11:00 AM. Besides Colorado cooks, we had cooks that came from Arizona, and Utah. Thank you cooks, for making and giving away so much chili to this huge crowd. A big thank you, goes out to all the sponsors (about 30 of them), whom with their support, allowed this successful event to happen. Great ICS cooks, a restaurant People's Choice division, food and vendor booths, bands, and lots of volunteers from the Town of Superior, made this a grand event. Tasting kits were sold and $6,679 was raised for the charity, the Colorado Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

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Special thanks goes out to Kristi and Dan Audette, Martin Toth, Jennifer Dunn, and the rest of the Town of Superior staff, who kept things running smoothly inside and outside the judging tent, and also to Kathy Plager, for keeping scorekeeping and all the paperwork in order, and who as usual, kept Bob Plager, Chief Judge in line.

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Now for the results:

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Salsa - 9 entries

3rd Place - Kathy Weiss

2nd Place- Xandra Ess

1st Place - Stephen Tomasek IV

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Chili Verde- 14 entries

3rd Place - Nolan Cordova

2nd Place - Stephen Tomasek IV

1st Place - Andy Gatschet (won last year)

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Red Chili - 20 entries

3rd Place - Ron Roby

2nd Place - Stephen Tomasek IV (3 points off Mike)

1st Place - Mike Rook (No longer the bridesmaid, and one very happy cook) (HAT TRICK)

See You Next Year.

Bob Plager

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