event Suggestions Needed to organize Chili Cook-off, Salsa Contest

salsalady

salsalady

eXtreme Business
I'm volunteering to help organize a Chili Cook-off and Salsa Contest as a fund raiser for the Methow Valley Community Center.

We live in a very rural area, something like 5000 people in the whole valley, which is about 2-5 miles wide and 40 miles long. The community center is a huge resource for the area, and of course needs $$$ to keep it operating.

They're going to put on a chili cook-off and salsa contest. There is a small kitchen, but not enough for all the cooks to use. The contest will be set up in the wood floored gym, so cooking at stations is not practical also.

It definitely will not be ICS rules, Don't even start about beans-no beans.... :rolleyes: .... I'm thinking of following the cook-off described on the BettyCrocker website. People cook at home and bring in a crock pot of hot chili and/or (2 qts?) salsa.

Here's the questions-

Should contest praticipants pay an entry fee? How much?

There will have to be Beans and NoBeans- but what other categories?
---red with beans
---red no beans
---verde with beans
---verde no beans
---Hottest (of all 4 categories)
any others???

Salsa-
mild/medium (red/pico)
Hot (red/pico)
Unique
(other???)


Please keep in mind where we live most people don't even know there are chiles hotter than habaneros...and many don't even know what a habanero is! I don't think we want to get too many categories, as I'm not sure how many will actually participate. Just thinking, we MIGHT be able to pull off the salsa contest on-site in the gym with the use of tarps to protect the floor. HHHHHmmmmmmmm......


Should entries be judged by a panel only, peoples choice only, or both?

What should guests be charged? Per Taste or flat rate entry fee?

What about people's choice voting, Single vote for their favorite or score each entry? Maybe have ballots at each entry station and guests rate 1-10 as they taste each chili/salsa.

For those who've participated in and attended chili cook-offs, thanks for sharing what others do. It'll help us to figure out what'll work for us.

Anything else????


Thanks for your suggestions~


edit- I changed the title of the post since I need "help" in the way of "suggestions"..... although, CJ and Scovie will probably get recruited, if not as contestants, at least to help. :)
 
Charge double for soft drinks near the hottest stand! :P

Seriously! Best of luck,,sounds like a great community fund raiser!

Kevin
 
wayright, That's FUNNY! AND a good idea, even if only for the joke factor. :lol:
 
wayright said:
Charge double for soft drinks near the hottest stand! :P Seriously! Best of luck,,sounds like a great community fund raiser!
Kevin
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salsalady said:
wayright, That's FUNNY! AND a good idea, even if only for the joke factor. :lol:
Click to expand...
That is a great idea, make sure the water fountains are turned off and have bottled water for sale by their locations. The Coke company will loan you coolers for the day if you fill it with their products only. Oh don't forget to sell beer and if it's early day hot Bloody Marys, a few nice pods in the bottle of vodka do a lot for visual marketing :)
 
Beans
All meat
Vegetarian
Game based

Those are 4 categories that I see in most I enter. I would charge a small entry fee to allow for a prize, call it $5 per category. 50% goes to top winner rest to the event. Have 1st, 2nd, 3rd and People's Choice. Again only prize for top winner. You will need to see based on pool collected and how many categories you have, how you will need to work out the math.

I would charge a fee for people to eat, something like $10 for all you can eat or $1 a ticket per bowl.

Another idea is to place paper bags next to each pot of chili and in order to determine the people's choice, the bag with the most collected money wins that award. All proceeds go to the fun raiser.

I would only have the panel taste and decide the winners for 1st and so forth.

Just a few suggestions, so many ways to run these events.

Same could apply to salsa except I would not charge, chili can be a meal.
 
Who organized the one for 49er Days? I went there all hot and heavy (10 years ago) to taste me some chili, and found out it was sold out at $40 per person to taste 1/2 cup of 10 different chili fixers. You filled out a ballot type questionnaire at each table. Like "Ansewr each, 1-5 Heat, flavor, texture, etc." at the end the added up all the scores and awarded the winner based on those answers. I don't think they even have it anymore...

When is this thing SL?
 
Feb 2nd, Scovie. Do you want to be a judge, enter a pot, or help? Kirsten (community center manager) said there's a press release in the paper this week. She indicated there might be 20-30 chilis, maybe 10 salsas.

Thanks for the tips, Joyners. After reading the ICS rules, I was thinking more along the red-green categories, but those categories would probably work better. And I'd have to get Hottest in there also. Does $10 for guests, all you can eat, 1/2 cup servings, sound fair?

Scott, it would be cool to have you participate, either as a judge or contestant. It's definitely not going to be anywhere close to ICS standards, though.

If we had 5-9 official judges, they could use ratings to determine the winner. For Peoples choice.....bags of money is a good idea for raising money.

O'Course, I'm gonna HAVE to enter the Hottest category. Just dump in all the old test batches of Pure Evil I have sitting around out in the kitch~~~ :twisted: :mouthonfire: :fire:
 
I'll take that as a YES to all the above, Scovie :lol:
 
+1 to Joyner, he said pretty much what I was going to say but I was going to suggest 10.00 to enter.

I see the ticket method used just at just about everyone I go to or have entered.
1 ticket for a sample
2 tickets for a whole bowl

Might also want to have an Other catagory for all the screwy Hot Dog Chilis. I know it sounds odd but I've seen some really strange chili before.

JMHO,
RM
 
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