On a chilly Saturday morning, hundreds gathered as dozens of teams flocked to downtown Plant City and showed off their best home-made chili for ChiliFest 2022, hosted by the Arts Council of Plant City.
The annual contest has taken place in Plant City for over 40 years and is one of several fundraisers held by the Arts Council each year, raising money through entry fees for participants, donations, prize raffles, a 50/50 raffle and a bargain fee of just $5 per bowl that offers the opportunity to stroll all across the Robert W. Willard Train Museum grounds and taste chili from each team in attendance.
While the chili couldn’t have come at a better time, heating everyone up on what turned out to be one of Florida’s coldest days this winter season, local coffee shop Krazy Kup also pitched in to provide free coffee and hot chocolate to patrons as well.
ChiliFest had 24 teams in total, ranging from families and friends to local business owners to competitors that displayed awards previously won across various other cooking competitions. Winning teams were selected from mild, spicy, novelty categories, voted on by a panel of three secret judges, as well as a people’s choice category that was decided by those in attendance, with prizes awarded to the top teams.
The event’s winners
are as follows:
Mild: Lawrence Valdez
Spicy: Hillbilly Chili (Corey Canfield)
Novelty: Brent’s BBQ (Brent Myers)
People’s Choice: Scooby’s Outdoor Adventures (Carl, Jennifer, Kaitlin, Scooby)
“It was tough and I think that we were pretty fair, but what separated the chilis across the board was just the overall flavor,” one anonymous judge said. “I think that it also needed to be categorized correctly. When we were judging, there was mild, spicy and novelty. So when we were judging for spicy, that spice was definitely part of what we wanted to judge there. If we felt that it was more novelty than spicy, being categorized properly may have made a huge difference in how it was judged and ultimately how the final result came to be.”
The Arts Council promotes the visual, performing and culinary arts, with money raised through their fundraisers going directly toward funding student scholarships in those fields.
“When schools cut programs, the first thing that they cut is anything that deals with the arts,” long-time Arts Council member Marsha Passmore said. “And we feel like, whether you’re a child or an adult or a senior citizen, whoever you are, we want to make it affordable through the different things that we offer so that everyone can be at least introduced to the arts here in Plant City.”
With on-stage performances by dancers from Plant City’s own Drawdy Dance Studio, ChiliFest was also able to bring performing arts to the forefront of an event that was already highlighting some of the area’s best culinary skills in a fun and family-friendly atmosphere.
Additionally, the Arts Council sponsors the J. Seward Johnson Sculpture Exhibit that makes its way to Plant City every year, the city’s Lamppost Banner Program and the Reflections Art Program, a national program that affords local students the opportunity to have their art on display at the event, and is heavily involved with the Plant City Christmas Parade.