Chilli Cook Off

[minioncookies]

Anyone ever participated in a Chilli Cook Off?
 
What ways do you think are best to organize and vote on a chilli cook off...

I think it should be all about the taste.. Not just because your related or you think they worked so hard to deserve it.. I think whoever wins should be based on taste and taste solely.. At least that's how i think it should be a fair judging!


Sometimes i think the church i go to their chilli cook off is rigged because the same person wins everytime.. and it just so happens all the judges are related to the person who wins everytime.. The church themself doesn't vote.. because that lead's to chaos they say.. LOL.. idk .. but i learned to not participate because it seems it's not very fair.. What are your thoughts?

[dlabostrie]

I think you should encourage everyone to enter, if you know someone who makes great chili get them to enter once you have enough entries then you have the people test chili and write down their vote cup #1,#2,#3 etc. that would make it fair and then the same person wouldn't win unless just incredibly good chili but as in all it will be more fun than anything and everyone is involved.
Enjoy

[lvstephanie]

Sadly it seems like so many competitions are biased esp. when it comes down to subjective judging. Just look at the ice skating judges from the winter Olympics a few years ago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Winter_Olympics_figure_skating_scandal). For a competition in which the competitors do not need to be present during the judging (as the judging is about what the competitor accomplished prior to the judging), then the best way to remove some of those biases is to have the judging blind. For the chilli cook-off, for example, they should seat the judges in a different room and bring numbered cups to the judges to taste. This way there is less of a chance for the judges to vote based on who made the chilli and more on just the qualities of the chilli.

I could see a few other features about the chilli other than taste that could be judged, although taste should be weighted more than the other factors. Things like texture, presentation, aroma, etc. could also be considered when rating the quality of a chilli. For example if one chilli seemed to have a layer of grease sitting on the top, it shouldn't be rated as high even if the taste of the stuff below the grease was excellent. They could also consider different styles, giving a prize for each category and a final one for best in show (eg Texas-style, Southern-style, Green chilli, etc.) since it is sometimes difficult to compare 2 drastically different styles.

[jford87]

I think it should be all about taste. A lot of times they judge it based on which one is the hottest or spiciest... those don't necessarily taste very good.