It doesn’t matter if you would rather eat a great quantity of chili or make a great quantity of chili, the cook-off this Sunday there will be something for everybody rain or shine! I’ve gone in years past and was completely blown away by the different styles of chili. Some teams had a million toppings, some used none. Some were spicy, some were bland, some were burned, at least one was Indian inspired, and I was surprised how much I liked the raw one! Some were packed with vegetables and some were traditional beanless Texas-style bowls of red. In the end I was so full I thought I would never eat again.
They are still looking for volunteers to work the festival and teams to compete for the hundreds of dollars in cash prizes. The people’s choice award will get $200 and a panel of judges, (including me!) will choose 4 winners in 2 categories, “Traditional” and “All Veg”. Second place in each division gets $150, and first prize in each division gets $250! The deadline is today November 7th to enter so get to it!
I think what makes the cook-off so special is that it is the longest running vegetarian chili cook-off in the world and it started right here in Austin! Everything will be vegan and a portion of the door will go to Texas Humane Legislation Network, a grassroots, nonprofit organization that fights for the enactment and enforcement of laws to protect animals from neglect and abuse, acting as the voice for animals in the Texas Legislature. The Cook-Off is returning to the site of the first cook-off in 1989, at the Burnet Road Farmers Market in Austin.
Advance tickets are on sale now and I promise you won’t go home hungry. There will be a lot of vendors selling cupcakes, hemp supplements, funnel cakes, and all sorts of other things you vegans crave. So be there. No matter what. LA is having a cook-off too the same weekend and we need to show them how it’s done.