Fraternity hosts annual Chili Cook-Off

The Mississippi Gamma chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon hosted their annual Chili Cook-Off Saturday in The District at the University of Southern Mississippi. The cook-off is a community event in which teams from both Greek organizations and other campus organizations as well as community members come together to compete to have the winning chili dish.

John Barr, president of SigEp, said this philanthropy is an exciting event for the men of the fraternity.

“Proceeds from the event benefit YouthAIDS,” Barr said.

YouthAIDS is an HIV/AIDS fund-raising and awareness campaign targeting young people ages 15-24. The campaign began in 2001 with a small group of partners who were taking a chance to make a difference.

“This year we had a total of 16 teams competing, with eight Greek teams and eight community teams,” Barr said.

Chili entries ranged from extra hot to sweet with a dash of cinnamon. There was even a crawfish chili entry.

This year’s cook-off brought a diverse and delicious group of chili entries that definitely pleased the crowd’s appetites. It also continued the tradition of having a jalapeno eating competition, which had five competitors.

“Watching them devour as many peppers as possible in two minutes was quite entertaining for the crowd,” Barr said. “The winner of the competition ate three habanero peppers, which put him in the lead.”

The event also featured live music by various local artists, including John Causey and SigEp member Gary Stanton.

“Having the music to accompany the event really tied everything together and made it a wonderful experience,” Barr said.

Attractions such as a dunking booth, snow-cone stand, and silent auctions and raffles were also at the event.

The winners of this years competitions were the Beta Sigma chapter of Kappa Delta sorority for the Greek competition and Mortgage Connection for the other organizations. Bayou DeRe’ LaRouge also won the most original chili with their crawfish chili entry that crawfish sprinkled on top. SigEp also started the Chili Queen competition in which sororities bid to win the title. This year, the Alpha Omicron chapter of Phi Mu sorority won, and Tatianna Mondaini was crowned Chili Queen.

Other people who competed in the cook-off were Pi Beta Phi, Pi Kappa Phi, Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, Delta Delta Delta Delta, Delta Tau Delta and Sigma Nu.