About two years ago I attended my first Chili Cook Off and was immediately inspired and intrigued – mostly due to the fact that I was totally thrilled to learn about white chili. I’m not a big red meat eater so to find out that chicken chili exists opened all sorts of cuisine possibilities for me. I decided that when the hockey schedule (my son’s) would permit I find a way to enter my own white chili concoction in the cook off. It took two years to allow for the aligning of the hockey schedule and the Chili Cook Off, but the wait was worth it. I joined forces with a couple of friends and we created a one-of-a-kind recipe for our white chili.
We conducted a bit of a marketing campaign prior to the big day, and not knowing quite what to expect in our first attempt, we approached the event with a lot of enthusiasm. In addition to a large appetite for chili, we have a big appetite for fun, which we had a lot of as we prepa
red our chili the day before, and it carried over to the actual event. The Chili Cook Off is in its 6th year and is organized by the Bill and Marie Lawrence family as a fundraiser for a scholarship that they started to honor the memory of their son, Andrew. The evening was a huge success as they served over 900 people who each paid $7 to attend the Cook Off to sample over 47 kinds of chili. T-shirts were available for purchase, as were beverages and dessert treats. Every taster can vote for their favorite chili – and (drum roll please) guess who won the people’s choice for white chili? We were thrilled as first year entrants to win first place in our category – quite an honor because we had some great competition. Even better, we knew that we were a part of such a wonderful community event. That’s just some of what makes Owatonna a special place to live, work and play – people genuinely care about one another – and really go out of their way to make a positive difference.
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