Taurus and Last Carrot take best chili awards

Hot Chili, Cool Cars was held at The Barnacle on Sunday. It was a perfect day for the event. The weather wasn't as humid as the day before and it was quite breezy and coolish at the water's edge. Katrina Boler of The Barnacle and Bryan Passman, did an excellent job of planning the event, it was months in the making. The Barnacle staff was excellent, too. It was a first class event.

Both cars and chili were judged, I was honored to be one of the three chili judges. The chili was judged by the public, too and so were the cars. People filled out cards for the cars and chili as they made their way around the grounds. This 1951 MG, owned by Larry Foreman, won the "Coolest Car" award.


Here we are, the judges, me, along with award-winning Chef Mark D'Alessandro and Bryan Passman. We had to judge the participants in different catagories like taste, of course, and color, aftertaste, aroma, etc.


The Judges' consensus was that The Taurus, was winner of Best Chili and the public agreed, also giving The Taurus Best Chili honor. This was "best meat chili," as there was a veggie chili category.


The Last Carrot won for best veggie chili. Here, Erin Compton, owner of the Last Carrot, received accolades by Katrina Boler and Chef Mark D'Alessandro. The Miami Music Academy played classical music, which fits into The Barnacle setting so well, and families came out; many brought their dogs, it was a nice neighborly event. More pictures here.