And the Winner is…
The Feast Your Eyes on This Spicy Cooking Challenge is coming to a close, and we have a winner to crown. Our two contestants, Chris Bintz of Wicked Cactus Sauces & Shauna Jellsey of TATS Sauces & Marinades really brought it the last round. Watch the video and see who won. It the meantime let me thank my sponsors, judges and other contestants. Please show them your support!
The overall winner of Feast Your Eyes on This Spicy Cooking Challenge will receive a free vendor’s booth from the Houston Hot Sauce Show & the NOLA Hot Sauce & Gourmet Show. 2nd place prize is $200 & 3rd place is $100. We would like to thank 4 contributors to those prizes- Race City Sauce Works, Texas Creek Products & EatMoreHeat. In addition Firehead Thomas and the lovely Firebelle Annabelle has tossed in another $50 to up the ante on the 2nd place prize. A special thanks also to Endorphin Farms for their huge contribution to the Spicy Tropical Condiment Challenge. We thank all our sponsors for their contributions to this spicy cooking challenge. Without them we would have no contest.
Our special round sponsors were:
Clement Bourge (Birthday boy turns 35 Friday)- Cajun Heat
Chad Lowcock- Race City Sauce Works
Scott Walter- Judo Joel’s Sauces & Marinades
James Wreck- www.EatMoreHeat.com
Johnny McLaughlin- Heartbreaking Dawns
Michael Lampros- Gunther’s Gourmet
Our Other Contestants:
Steve Zielinski of Crazy Steve’s Pickles & Salsa
Jeff Porter of the Chile Spot
Chip Welsh of Red Lion Spicy Foods
Rob Holdaway of Sticky Brand Sauces
Maria Villafrade of Dragonfire Sauces
Judges:
CaJohn Hard- www.CaJohns.com
Carol Borge- www.HoustonHotSauce.com
Chad Lowcock- www.RaceCitySauceWorks.com
Adam Fehr- www.EndorphinFarms.com
Ann Simmons- www.TexasCreekProducts.com
Scott Roberts- www.ScottRobertsweb.com
Firehead Thomas- www.ILoveItSpicy.com
Follow the contest from the beginning:
Round 1: Comfort Food Battle Videos
Round 2: Potato Challenge Videos
Round 3: Stuffed Challenge Videos
Round 4: Texas Challenge
Round 5: Kabob Challenge
Round 6: Pie & Punch Challenge
Round 7- The Finals: 4 Course Meal
Congrats! Shauna! Well deserved victory!!!!
Congrats to both of you…”it’s nothing to bark home about”!!
Congrats Shauna & Chris!
Great job to Chris as well you sure can cook!
Here are my thoughts:
Congrats to all the contestants! To even attempt something like this on video takes some guts. Even though video editing problems and lateness cost some of you some much-needed points, I applaud all of you for trying.
I told Buddah probably a few weeks in that Jeff was an early favorite of mine. I thought he had what it took and was curious to see how far he could sustain everything. But the nature of judging this contest was that each week started over as if it were the first week, so I and the other judges took this viewpoint to be fair.
Chris, outstanding job. You deserve your own cooking show. You’ve made mouth-watering dishes, you have a likable personality and great delivery and made me wish I were there in the kitchen with you learning from a true pro (and I envied Mike because he got to eat your fantastic-looking dishes!). You’ve got some chops. You’ve been consistantly good in every round, and have probably been in my top 2 the whole way through if memory serves correctly. You remind me of a great NFL team that’s firing on all cylliders all season long and was a shoe-in to be in the playoffs, and even one that earned homefield advantage to help get you a shot at the Super Bowl.
Shauna, to be honest, you weren’t as consistent as the other contestants week-to-week and was definitely a wild card in my eyes, to continue with the football analogy. You had your great weeks and then you had your so-so weeks. But you wowed us judges enough to earn the points to keep you in the game. It was your offering in the kabobs round that really appealed to me and got both a grand slam home run and a touchdown in the 4th quarter (mixing my sports metaphors) with simple visual appeal and complete, out-of-the-box creativity. That was more than enough to convince me that you were no fluke that merely sqeaked on by every week. You truly had what it took. And I loved the humor in your videos! I was not one of the crumpy-pusses who thought that kid of stuff was distracting.;-)
So this final round I went with Shauna. Just like the phase in the NFL that anything can happen on any given Sunday, Shauna pulled ahead and bested Chris in my opinion. Chris did his usual stellar job, but I thought hers was simply better and more out-of-the-box creative.
Thanks to Buddah for having the patience to host this contest (c’mon, buddy, don’t be that quick to give up!) and to all the sponsors who generously donated prizes.
Congratulations to Shauna on the overall win!!! Great job with all your dishes š I really look forward to having You/Tats at our event!!!!!
I will be contacting you shortly regarding your booth at the Houston Hot Sauce Festival FYI Buddah, it’s the 12th annual… I am out of town until Friday and can’t check my email—
Being a part of this contest has been great fun. All competitors did a stellar job on creativity of dishes. I WILL be attempting some of these.
Carol
Congrats Shauna & Chris. Great dishes.
I want to say Thank You to all the Judges and buddah and all the contestants. I am so happy to win. Great Job to chris you did an awesome job. This was a very hard competition not easy to do.But I also had alot of fun doing it. Also Thanks to all my Tats Fans for watching and voteing. Thanks Everyone
I would like to say congrats to Shauna! Job well done! Also wanted to say thank you to all the judges and to Buddah. Had a great time making the videos!
Scott hit the nail on the head with his very cheezy analogy…lol;)
Cheese, as in Cheeseheads? Gotta keep it football.;-)
Congratulations Shauna for the WIN, and well deserved kudos to all the other contestants, especially Chris.
Chris, your kitchen skills are exceptional…well, except for the tiramisu…to which I say..doodooo occurs! And that only showed because you let us see the real side of cooking. It’s not always ‘perfect’…No knocked points for that because I could totally “taste” that dish in a bowl. Aw, man, I’m back at the beachfront restaurant, tasting the coffee-soaked….ok…enough of that…. And we can all relate to being there, OH,$#!!!!! š Thanks for sharing a real life, and then you moved on to complete the dish.
Shauna, your cooking skills weren’t the best but your creativity and pushing to try something new and your flavor presentations were spot-on for me.
To all the contestants, thank you for sharing your passion and inspiration.
Thanks to Buddah and ILIS for hosting the challenge and to the main sponsors for the booths at the festivals!
I truly enjoyed participating and look forward to meeting all of you great folks in person over the next couple years.
Sincerely
Ann texascreekproducts
Congrats to Shauna and Chris. Shauna, very well done! You pushed the envelope and it paid off. Well played and well deserved!!! After reviewing your sauces for ILIS, I’m a big fan and look forward to meeting you in Houston. chris, you need to come to Houston and then back to NOLA! I’m jonesin for some NOLA berry!!!
Congrats to Shauna and Chris. Shauna, very well done! You pushed the envelope and it paid off. Well played and well deserved!!! After reviewing your sauces for ILIS, Iām a big fan and look forward to meeting you in Houston. chris, you need to come to Houston and then back to NOLA! Iām jonesin for some NOLA berry!!!
Thanks ken. I am really excited. Cant wait to meet you in Houston.