Chilifest Westport CT 2015 Winners

Congratulations to the 2015 ChiliFest Westport CT winners!

Bedford Middle School in Westport CT was home to the ChiliFest CT contest! This fierce and fun competition is brought to you by the same folks who host ChowdaFestCT!

Nearly one thousand people were on hand to welcome the return of Chilifest to Westport!

Let's face it - all the chili entries were DELICIOUS - and each deserves the win!

So many great chilis to choose from!  

How hard it was to pick just one!

But YOU were the judge - and decided that the winners were:

Classic Beef:

Southport Brewing Company who took the Classic Beef category with their Maple Stout Chili.

Others in the classic beef category that need to be mentioned are Black Cat Grille in Redding, defending champion Bobby Q’s of Westport, Chilibomb in Fairfield, Little Pub of Greenwich, Ridgefield and Wilton and Old Post Tavern of Fairfield who placed 2nd with their “Deflated Super Bowl Chili”. SBC entered a Maple Stout Chili made by co-owner and master brewer Mark DaSilva.  Their winning recipe included SBC’s very own brewed stout.  “We wanted to blend the best of our brewery and kitchen” said a noticeably happy DaSilva.  “We’ll have to figure out how to share this trophy at all three locations” he added. 



Creative Category:

Geronimo of Fairfield won the Creative Chili category with their Hatch Green Chili

Their Hatch Green Chile edged out entries from The Boat Yard BBQ & Grill of Stamford, Cask Republic of New Haven and Stamford who placed 2nd, The Chef’s Table of Fairfield, Liquid Lunch of Shelton and Milford and Simply Delicious of Norwalk.  “I tweaked our recipe a bit” said Chef Tim Scott of Geronimo.  “I’m glad I did as the competition was top notch.”


Local Firehouse Chili:

The firefighters of Westport took the firehouse chili category narrowly beating fellow firefighters from Bridgeport and Weston.

This was probably my favorite category of the year as it featured the culinary talent of local firefighters.  Sponsored by Local Kitchen and Beer Bar, the category was easily the most heated competition of the day.  With a win by less than 30 votes, chef/firefighter Toby Ostapchuk noted “We entered our Checkered Flag Chicken Chili. It’s been a long time favorite of the department so we decided to enter it.  We call it checkered flag because the black and white beans makes it look like a checkered flag.  I hope more fire departments enter next year. It was a lot of fun.”

And I personally enjoyed meeting Westport’s First Selectman Jim Marpe and watching him don an apron and help serve samples alongside Westport firefighters. 

Event Chair Jim Keenan (below) was pleased with the event turnout as we joked and chatted about eating chili at 11:00 in the morning!

Everyone loved the Chili!

And Westport First Selectman, Jim Marpe made the rounds with ChiliFest mascot Chef Ref to celebrate the return of Chilifest!

The Sacred Heart University Band played and got everyone in the mood for some great chili!

The men’s club at the Unitarian Church in Westport plus over a hundred student athletes from the Sacred Heart University football, women’s hockey, women’s golf and equestrian teams helped orchestrate parking, sold and accepted tickets, separated recycle and compostable waste, worked with restaurants and tabulated votes.

Besides sampling chili, attendees also got to sample mini-tiramisu from The Greens of Cannondale and Tony Aitoro mingled with the crowd handing out his famous chocolate chip cookies served at Aitoro Appliances in Norwalk. Fellow sponsors Stop & Shop and Volvo of Westport provided some much welcome relief to attendees who sampled over 1,800 gallons of chili.  Stop & Shop served water throughout the event while Volvo of Westport handed out mints in a tin shaped like a Volvo as people handed in their ballots.

The big winner was the Turtle Shell Fund, the event’s beneficiary.  The Turtle Shell Fund seeks to promote the education of young people in art, music, theater, skilled craft and other creative pursuits in order to create a rich cultural heritage for tomorrow.


Chilifest is proudly sponsored by Aitoro Appliances, The Greens at Cannondale, Local Kitchen & Beer Bar, Stop & Shop, Sustainable America, US Foods, Volvo of Westport and WEBE 108.

For MANY MORE PICTURES of the event visit the Home Place Facebook page==>> HERE

and while you're there...don't forget to "like" us! 

For more information log on to the ChiliFest website at http://www.come2chilifest.com/

A big thank you to the ChiliFest sponsors!