What started as a family’s tradition more than a decade ago has grown into an annual event at Munson and Brothers Trading Post, where cooks compete for bragging rights and contribute to a cause close to home.
On Saturday night, eight chili chefs faced off in the annual cook-off and coat drive at the trading post, all in an effort to support the local homeless community.
“This time we tried to pick a good cause,” Owner Ryan Munson told The Dispatch. “We’re going to buy food for our local food pantries, and it’s also a coat drive. So we’re collecting winter coats to drop off at either the warming stations or the (Golden Triangle Homeless Coalition).”
Cooks were invited to enter their best chili recipe at a $20 fee, while patrons could pay $10 to try each chili and cast their ballots for their favorites.
Darla Scott, one of the competitors, said it was her first time competing in a chili cook-off. Instead of opting for her usual red chicken chili, she prepared a Mexican white chicken chili, trying the recipe for the first time with ingredients like roasted corn, poblano peppers and heavy cream.
“I’ve never done this before, so I’m just happy to do it,” Scott told The Dispatch. “It’s all in the fun of stuff, and it’s for a good cause. … I mostly did it because I just wanted to do it, and if I win, that’s even better.”
While the restaurant has hosted the cook-off in recent years, Munson said the idea started with Cathryn Borer and her family, who would host it at their home.
Borer said the tradition started about 16 years ago when the family was living in Omaha, Nebraska.
“We were stationed there, and we had a really good neighborhood, and we just started,” she told The Dispatch. “I don’t know why a chili cook-off, but we decided to do it.”
After moving back to Columbus in 2012, the Borers resumed the tradition.
“It just got bigger and bigger,” she said. “Then my kids got older, things got busier, and my good friends, the Munsons, opened up this place, and said, ‘Could we do it here since you stopped doing it at your house?’”
Borer agreed, sharing her best tips for organizing the competition. She and Katherine Munson tallied the results together Saturday before announcing the winners – a job they used to share back when the cook-off took place at Borer’s home.
Winning cooks
Melanie Tubbs’ buffalo chicken chili took the third place prize, a dish she described as a staple in her kitchen.
“I make it all the time,” she said. “I use ground chicken and ground turkey, and then it’s got diced tomatoes and a ranch seasoning packet and then buffalo sauce.”
Tubbs, a returning cook, said it was the charitable cause that motivated her to participate again this year.
Second-place winner Jeanie Miller went with a simple, trusted method to prepare her white chicken chili for the competition.
“Dump and go,” she said. “I threw it all together, and I let the crockpot do its thing. I threw in just some random seasonings.”
It was Miller’s first time competing in a chili cook-off. While chili isn’t a dish she cooks often, she was glad to participate, drawn in particularly by the event’s focus on helping the homeless community.
“I love the venue,” she said. “I love the atmosphere, and I love that it was (benefiting) the homeless coalition.”
Scott’s recipe took home the top prize, winning her a t-shirt and a $100 gift card. The key, she said, was preparing the ingredients the day before to let the flavors meld and cooking corn husks in the chili for added flavor.
“I did it the day before because the flavors set in really well,” she said. “It’s the best way to do it.”
By the end of the night, the cook-off raised more than $500 to go toward stocking local food pantries. The event also collected more than 100 winter coats to be donated as the weather gets cooler, a turnout Ryan Munson found especially heartening.
“Some people just came and dropped them off,” he said. “It’s gone amazing.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Related Photos
Katherine Munson, left, owner of Munson and Brothers Trading Post, takes a photo of chili cook-off winners, from left, Jeanie Miller, who won second place, Darla Scott, who took home first place, and third-place winner Melanie Tubbs. Eight chefs competed in the annual cook-off and coat drive, which benefited the Golden Triangle Homeless Coalition. (Emma McRae/Dispatch Staff)
