A big congratulations is in order for a San Angelo cooking team that won the chili cookoff contest at Chilifest over the weekend held annually just outside of College Station in Snook, TX.

During the seventeen plus years I worked radio in Bryan/College Station, it was pretty much a given that I would be at this annual 2 day music festival along with thirty to fifty thousand other people enjoying top performers at this awesome fundraising music festival. Their main purpose has always been to give back to local charities throughout the Brazos Valley and its surroundings areas while providing a unique festival experience to attendees and it's been going on since 1991.

Many of you already know the three members of the cooking team that won first place. The team's members include Brantley Hoelscher, Ruben Rodriguez and Blaine Wilson. They cook for many events in and around the Concho Valley and are well known as the "Cooking For Christ" team. However, for this particular event they named their chili  team “Blaine’s Pub.”

That's very fitting because as Brantley was quoted as saying...“That’s where we hang out and we wanted to play tribute to our hometown.”

The next time you are in Blaine's Pub be sure to check out the Chilifest award. You can bet these guys earned it as they competed against numerous other teams that were there looking to win!

The grand prize was $1,500, VIP tickets to Chilifest next year, and of course...bragging rights.

Cooking teams as a general rule don't give up many secrets about their winning recipes but Brantley did share one saying..."The team’s chili contains both beef and deer meat. Brantley said he definitely drains the grease out of the hamburger. Deer meat is generally always lean anyway."

If you get a chance to make it to Chilifest sometime....do it!. It's always a lot of fun and always with a great lineup of performers. A few of the top performers this year included The Randy Rogers Band, Koe Wetzel, Flatland Cavalry, Easton Corbin, Pecos & The Rooftops, and Kody West among others.

I love good chili and theirs was judged to be the best. I'll have to catch up with them sometime when they are cooking it!! Congratulations again to a great cooking team!!

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