Feast In The Streets: Chili Cook-Off Draws Crowds To West Chester

The streets were teeming with the hungry and the curious.

Hundreds of people took to closed-off streets of downtown West Chester on Sunday afternoon for the annual Chili Cookoff competition between dozens of local purveyors.

Plastic white spoon in hand and red sauce smeared across their upper lips, feasters of every imaginable description picked their way in between rows upon rows of tents, each tent serving another organization’s or business’ own unique take on chili.

Babies in bibs held plastic spoons, and elderly individuals in wheelchairs held plastic spoons. Representatives from some tents filtered out into the lines and into the crowd with trays of chili samples, bringing the

All of those participating in the taste-testing were given three wooden chips, which they could put into the buckets of their three favorite chilis.

The grand prize for the winner was $1,000. The Rotary Club also donated $32,000 in grants to local non-profits with money raised from 2014’s event.

At the Salvation Army tent, workers wearing Salvation Army hats called out to the passing crowd trying their chili.

“Give us your chip, and if we win the thousand dollars, all of it goes to charity!”

Others tried more direct approaches, handing out chili in one hand and then walking backwards, keeping pace with the feaster, and dangling a bowl with wooden chips in front of them as they ate.

As the day wore on and the festival concluded, cooks wearing cooking smocks at one tent courted a young girl who held a balloon in one hand and her final chip in another. They handed her another balloon, which she took. She put the wooden chip between her teeth and rocked side to side for a moment, as if engrossed in deep pondering. Then she turned away.

At the tent, the cooks in cooking smocks laughed, but just a little.

For a full lineup of participating teams, please see the list here.