Chili Cook-Off turns up the heat with a fiesta
2018 Chili Cook-Off
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The UHCL Chili Cook-Off is the oldest annual tradition on campus. This year, various UHCL student organizations and offices weathered the chilly conditions to celebrate Hunter the Hawk’s fifth birthday, competed to see who had the best chili recipe and de-stress leading up to the culmination of the semester.
Last year, I was one of the captains for the Hawk Leadership Institute’s Chili Cook-Off team and we won both Best Spirit and Popular Booth awards. Since I graduated from the Hawk Leadership Institute, I had to find another team to join during the Chili Cook-Off. Luckily, as an orientation leader, I was able to join the Orientation and New Student Programs (ONSP) team. Knowing the amount of work and stress that went into being the captain of a Chili Cook-Off team, I decided to take a step back this year and just be a general member of ONSP’s team.
As a group, we quickly decided to do a “Coco” inspired fiesta theme, and we dove right into finding cool decorations and accessories to spruce up our booth. Ultimately, we ended up using a lot of items from traditional Hispanic heritage to really illustrate the fiesta theme.
Aside from finding a multitude of vibrant colors to use, we put “Lotería” cards on strings to hang from the top of our tent and bought serapes (a shawl/blanket used and worn in various cultures in Latin America) as tablecloths. Most importantly, Diveanne Martinez, education major and co-captain of ONSP’s team, decided that her dog Chewie could be our team mascot, and she bought him a little serape and sombrero set to wear at the Chili-Cook Off.
For our chili, we decided to go with a mango habanero recipe. This contained habanero chili peppers, chicken breast, sweet potatoes, mango and other spices to give it a little kick. We also had a “Cook’s Choice” item, which is essentially a snack that teams can make to qualify for the category. Our team made mangonadas, a Mexican fruit drink with chamoy sauce, mangos, lime juice, chili powder and a tamarind straw. We had everything planned out and we were ready to turn up the heat!
The day of the Chili Cook-Off was really cold, gloomy and windy, but there was no rain in the forecast, so the show went on. Just like the previous year, there were a lot of amusements and activities such as an inflatable moon bounce, a bungee run, a rock wall and more.
After setting up our tent and putting up all the decorations, I could see that it all was coming together. When Diveanne put on the playlist for our tent, that’s when I REALLY knew our theme came together. We were a big hit! After we celebrated Hunter the Hawk’s fifth birthday and served our chili and mangonadas for a few hours, we got to hear who won all the various awards categories. Ultimately, we came out with the Most Spirited Booth award, and we were all happy.
As usual, the Chili Cook-Off was a fun event that brought the UHCL community closer together. Competing against different organizations and offices was fun and it meant a lot that I got to be a part of the friendly competition. I’m glad that my team came out with an award again this year, and I’ve already started thinking about potential themes and chilis for next year.
