St Matthew Knights Spice up Chili Sunday Once Again

The battle for the best chili was on, but the champion prevailed once again.

Their competition was intense from many other fine cooks, but the 2 time Chili for Charity “Chili Cook-Off” champion came through again.

On a beautiful sunny Fall day, the Knights of Columbus St. Matthew Council 14360 held their Third Annual Chili Cook Off fundraiser at Saugatuck Sweets in Fairfield on Sunday, October 1st. Six Knights from the council and two guests cooked 8 chili entries, ranging from super spicy to scrumptiously sweet. Defending Champion and Past Grand Knight George Ribellino did it once again much to the dismay of Grand Knight Scott Criscuolo. “"It is a dark day in the chili competition world. I really need to double my praying efforts to make sure this calamity never happens again,” said Criscuolo. Criscuolo went on to say, “All joking aside, it's always a great day when we can be out in the community, being a brotherhood with our Knights, and being able to raise money for a wonderful organization like Al's Angels, who's always striving to make a difference."

With more than 95 votes counted by the sampling judges for the best, hottest and best-named recipes, Ribellino, Chili Cook-Off Chairman, Erric Moretti, Tim Horne and Michael Colaluca tied for third place won the best chili awards respectively. In addition, Richard Kovatch won best-named chili for “Fire in the Hole” and the hottest chili award

"Once again, for the third year in a row, our Brother Knights hit it out of the park with some amazing chili offerings! We had some new participants bringing the heat to our veteran chili chefs. As always special thanks to Al Diguido for his space and assistance. This year our council was able to donate $316 to Al's Angels from the 95 judges at this event,” said Chili for Charity Chairman Erric Moretti.

The Chili for Charity concept was started by then new Knight Erric Moretti back in the summer of 2015. Moretti thought it would be a nice fraternal experience for the council while helping the community. He calls it a “fun raiser”.

The mission of Al’s Angels is to provide holiday meals and gifts to children battling cancer, rare blood diseases and severe financial hardship. This year Al’s Angels plans to provide holiday dinners for 1,000 families affected by Hurricane Harvey. Please visit www.alsangels.org for more information.

“I knew the competition was going to be tough this year since I have the target on my back. I appreciate the support of all the judges and I love the trash talk among the Brother Knights which is all is fun. The best part is we get to raise money for a great organization in Al’s Angels,” said three time Chili Champion George Ribellino.

"My family and I had a great time at the Knights Chile cook off. The contestants all created dishes that were not only delicious to eat but appropriately named such as "Fire in the Hole" , Third Degree, "As Seen on TV", and "Meat Lovers" They were all so good it was difficult to say whose was the best! We look forward to next year,” said St. Matthew parishioner and judge Ernie DesRochers.

The goals of the Knights of Columbus Council at Saint Matthew Church in Norwalk is to perform acts of charity, providing those in need with a range of support from financial to tactical help in dealing with a wide variety of challenges. Council members work together to foster the founding principles of our order: Charity, Unity, Fraternity & Patriotism. Our goal as a council is to continue to identify specific needs in our community and muster support and help to alleviate these challenges and hardships to the best of our abilities and resources.