SC Chili Cook-Off Championship

Life is funny in the way that new discoveries and opportunities often present themselves out of nowhere.  In this case, what started as a simple trip to UPS opened the door to an adventure this Saturday that we are totally stoked about.

A couple of months ago I stopped by our local UPS store to get prices on shipping a bunch of Big Daddy’s hot sauce to us from Texas.  Our intent was to procure enough sauce to sell to our friends and neighbors in order to share an amazing Texas flavor with our Upstate community.  As luck would have it, however, the manager of the store is a hot sauce aficionado and committee member for the SC Chili Cook-Off Championship.  Thirty minutes and a bottle of High On Fire later and he invited us to set up shop at the event in Belton on April 14^th.

Things should have been easy from here but as is our nature we went back to the drawing board and made things way harder than they needed to be.  We procrastinated with questions like “How many cases should we get?”, “Do we have any clue what we are doing?” and “How are we going to pay for all of this?”  As a result, the shipping of the hot sauce waited and waited and waited.  It actually waited to the point where our awesome friends and manufacturers of Big Daddy’s shipped out the product on the day vendor registration officially closed.

Oops.

After I had a brief panic attack over how I intended to explain to my wife and friends that I procrastinated our way out of the event, I made a few phone calls.  I ended up speaking with the co-chair of the SC Chili Cook-Off Championship who made us an offer I could not refuse. They were interested in adding more contestants to the People’s Choice portion of the event and we wanted to sell hot sauce… so, if we were willing to enter a chili in the competition, we could sell Big Daddy’s goodness at our booth.  Game on, folks.

I should mention here that Chris is not only an amazing cook in general but she already has a chili cook off victory under her belt from her days in Texas.  On Saturday she will not just be preparing chili as a means to sell hot sauce, she is all-in with her sights set on winning our segment of the competition.  Come out and see us in downtown Belton and vote for Chris’s chili as the People’s Choice winner of the SC Chili Cook-Off Championship.  Try one of the four flavors of Big Daddy’s hot sauce or their new barbeque sauce and I am certain you will be as big a fan as we are.  

But wait, there is more….

Despite all of the preceding shameless self promotion, The SC Chili Cook-Off Championship is a fantastic event that you should not miss. The event is sanctioned by the International Chili Society and winners of the ICS portion of the event have the chance to advance towards the World Championship Chili Cook Off in October.   ICS trophies will be awarded to the best red chili, green chili and salsa as prepared by chefs and chili fanatics from all over the country.  Local contestants will compete for The People’s Choice Award (did I mention that Chris is planning on winning this one?).

Besides great flavors there will be live entertainment, children’s activities, exhibits and arts and crafts.  Even better, proceeds from the event will be distributed amongst several worthy Upstate non-profit organizations.

 

The weather will be great, Belton is not far from anywhere in the Upstate, and the chili will be delicious.  We hope to see you Saturday!