Industrial Truck Service Chili Cookoff!

October is delicious even without candy!

This year on the Friday before Thanksgiving Industrial Truck Service (Winnipeg) hosted its second annual Chili cookoff. Last year saw five teams battling for prizes and fame, each with a name aiming for glory.

This year was much the same, but we decided to make this a real blind taste test. Instead of knowing who made the chili you were rating, this year the five crock pots of chili were simply numbered, taking the popularity contest out of the running and making things really about the chili. Everyone here in Winnipeg who was able to make it into the shop for lunch got to rank each chili from one to five stars, with the three best rated chilis making the cut as our champs.

In the image above we have Justin (center) as our First Place winner. Personally I caught more of a molasses flavor to his chili, with a fast building heat. The delicious buns we got brought out more of a bake bean flavor that was a nice compliment to the pleasant heat of the chili.

Next up we have Michelle (right) in Second Place, wearing her blue and gold. I found her chili a little sweeter, with a little stronger of a bake bean flavor to it, while the buns brought the tomato flavor more to the forefront of things.

Coming in Third Place we have Michelle (left, another one!), one of our latest mechanic hires. She brought in a chili that was a little spicier than the others, while the overall flavor palette of the chili was a little more conventional and complimented well with the buns. One surprise that came out after the judging though was the inclusion of moose in her chili (very tasty).

Only 0.4 of a star separated our first and third place winners in the overall rankings, so you just know the rest of the chilis were just as tasty!

All three of our winners are from the service department, so we're expecting the Parts, Sales, and Admin teams to spend the next year refining their recipes so they can stop Service from claiming the trophy three years running!