Last week our amazing culinary group here at Sahuaro had an impressive chili cook-off that showed how talented our future chefs are.

Jordan Gabarda, who won second place in his class, said he started doing culinary because “I really just wanted to learn how to cook and improve my skills at it.” He said the chili, “…took about three days.  We asked for all of our ingredients and then started making it on Wednesday; it took till about Friday to fully finish it up and have it ready for judging.” Jordan also said, “It was difficult but it wasn’t strenuous. Honestly, the most difficult part was cooking sure, but also plating and having it ready.”

The chili was set up all around the room on trays waiting for the judges to give it a try. Karyck Donnelly, one of the judges of the competition, said, “One group had ghost peppers in their chili and as a fan of spice, it made it really good.” She added, “I was looking for spice because I really enjoy spice. I also like good meat and tomato-y taste. Also, I had never had chili before, so I was very unbiased and found out what made certain chili good while I was doing it.”

The culinary group put on a master class in cooking and all of the chili was great. Having tried the chili that got second place, I can say from a first-hand account that it was the best chili I’ve ever had and first place must have been the greatest chili ever cooked!