Who knew a chili cook-off could be so much fun? Rhame did.
Posted April 11, 2014
By BRYCE MARTIN | Pioneer Editor | [email protected]
RHAME — Who knew a chili cook-off could be so much fun? Rhame did.
After three decades, two main contributors to the Waterhole Bar’s annual chili cook-off are saying farewell, including the contest’s sponsor.
The cook-off, held April 5 in Rhame, presents this small community each year with a chance for cooks from around Bowman County to show off their skills and to socialize with friends and acquaintances. It also spurns a fun yet fierce competition, all in an effort to raise funds for the Rhame American Legion baseball club.
Thirteen teams, each with four members or less, assembled inside the American Legion Hall with electric burners, crock pots, cooking supplies, beef, ingredients and, special for this year, beans.
For the last 30 years, the contest’s ruling body, the International Chili Society, banned the use of beans. It was quite the big deal as most of the contestants preferred to add the traditional chili element to their recipes.
Longtime Waterhole Bar owners Steve Pfau and Carolynne Jones, who have sponsored the event for 30 years, said they are ready to pass the torch to another local organization in hopes of keeping their legacy cook-off a reality in Rhame.
“Steve (Pfau) talked to the (Rhame) Community Club so maybe they would want to take it over because it’s a great fundraiser,” Jones said. “You raise a lot of money for that Legion baseball club.”
Rhame Legion members Bruce Jones and Jim Septon, who were busy cooking their own entry for the contest, were the pair that got the cook-off started, Jones said. The two attended other cook-offs and, when Pfau purchased the Waterhole Bar in 1983, they discussed having the bar sponsor a local cook-off. And the legacy bloomed from there.
The chili society’s rules are important, according to Jones, as some contestants take their secret recipe on to state competitions. Jones said her team went to state a few years in a row, one year placing third.
Unique to Rhame’s cook-off is the decoration each team uses to standout. Some of the themes this year included The Addams Family, “Spice Girls”, gnomes, and cheetah attire.
“They look really good; imagine all that work,” Jones said as she browsed the teams’ decoration.
In a teary sendoff, 30-year chili contest coordinator Verlee Snyder gave her own farewell as she ended her cook-off tenure – making Rhame’s competition her last.
Snyder, of Bismarck, has coordinated chili cook-offs throughout the state, but she said Rhame’s cook-off has remained her favorite.
“I love to do this one because they decorate and they have fun,” she said. “It’s fun for them and for me.”
Snyder joked that this year she should have been a contestant, noting with a laugh that she had been honing her chili-making skills by watching Martha Stewart on television.
Despite working as coordinator, Snyder said that she never tastes the contestants’ chili because it would look like she told them what to do to make a great chili. That way, she could avoid any chili controversy.
To make a perfect chili, Snyder said, is impossible.
“Nobody has a perfect chili, so I tell the judges never to award a 10,” she said, adding she didn’t have her own perfect, special chili recipe either.
Once the clocks ticked down, the last of the chili-covered tasting spoons filled the garbage and the ice in each team’s beverages melted away, the judges had decided the victors.
First, the showmanship award, given to the best-decorated team, went to The Addams Family team, sponsored by Rhame’s Fire Department.
Donning wigs, clad in black and cooking their entry under the roof of a cardboard haunted house, the Addams Family team graciously took home a trophy and a check for $25 from the Waterhole Bar.
In third place was the Addams Family, ending their usual first-place winning streak. They received a trophy and check for $50. The second place trophy and a check for $100 went to Spot On Chili.
No stranger to the competition was this year’s first-place team from West Plains Implement in Bowman, which received a $150 check from the Waterhole Bar and a large, first-place trophy.
