It’s offi­cial. Bluffton Self Help will host a regional sanc­tioned chili cookoff on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 25 at Tanger II. The call for cooks will be issued in early Decem­ber with a cut off for reg­is­tra­tion on Jan­u­ary 30.

Local chili cooks and cooks from the south­east region of the United States will com­pete for the regional title, with the win­ner pro­gress­ing to the inter­na­tional cook off held annu­ally in dif­fer­ent loca­tions around the coun­try and also be guar­an­teed a space in the Upstate Chili Cookoff held in Bel­ton, SC in April.

“What makes this cook off unique is that those in atten­dance watch the chili being pre­pared from chop­ping of the veg­eta­bles and meat to the light­ing of the stove,” said Lili Cole­man. “The chili is pre­pared for approx­i­mately three hours and the judges deter­mine the win­ner at the con­clu­sion of the cookoff.”

Once the chilies are deliv­ered to the judg­ing table the tast­ing begins!

Celebrity judges and restau­rant chefs will be selected to judge the chili entries fol­low­ing the rules and reg­u­la­tions of the ICS orga­ni­za­tion.
The ICS is the offi­cial orga­ni­za­tion that sanc­tions chili cookoffs. These events are world­wide and ben­e­fit char­i­ties or non­profit orga­ni­za­tions. All win­ners of ICS sanc­tioned cookoffs qual­ify to com­pete for cash prizes and awards at the World’s Cham­pi­onship Chili Cookoff. The ICS is the largest food con­test, fes­ti­val orga­ni­za­tion in the world. Their sole pur­pose is to pro­mote, develop and improve the prepa­ra­tion and appre­ci­a­tion of true chili and to deter­mine each year the World’s Cham­pion Chili through offi­cially sanc­tioned and reg­u­lated com­pet­i­tive cookoffs. The Inter­na­tional Chili Soci­ety is very proud to say that they sanc­tion over 200 cookoffs a year through­out the World and have helped raise over $86 mil­lion dol­lars for char­i­ties and non­profit organizations.

Watch for more information!