O’Boyle wins Chili Cook-off

Grand Island Dispatch, October 23, 2009

Spencer O’Boyle of Grand Island won the 2009 DeGlopper VFW Post’s Chili Cook-off, held on Oct. 10.

O’Boyle, a life member of the post, had entered the contest in previous years, but this was his first win.

“I was shocked,” he said of hearing his name announced as the winner. “I was standing out there kidding when they announced everybody else. I says, ‘Well, I’m going to be the winner.’ And then when they called my name, I went, ‘What?’ ”

O’Boyle took home $100 for first place with a recipe that he said he just dreamed up a few days before the event.

“I used three different types of meat. I used hamburger, hot Italian sausage, and pork,” he said. “I tried not to keep it too hot because I’m middle-aged now, and you can’t handle the heat. But it has a bite. You have a few spoonfuls in it, then you feel it. But I don’t like it to be overpowering. You want it to be flavorful.”

Tony Majewicz of Buffalo won $50 for second place, while teenager Sarah Kielaszek of North Tonawanda, making chili for the first time, came in third for a $25 prize. Twenty-two chili dishes were entered.

Laura Sexton, president of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary, who organize and run the event, said proceeds help send care packages to troops overseas.

Judging chili is entirely subjective, so the judges for the event included two politicians and a journalist. Judges were Liam Fernald, Town Supervisor Peter McMahon, Town Councilman Dick Crawford and Doug Smith.

Fernald, of Wheatfield, an Army recruiter out of the Tonawanda Army station, spent four years in Texas, so he knows good chili when he tastes it. He said a good chili has all the tastes blended together without any one ingredient overpowering another. “It’s got a good spicy taste to it. It’s got a good consistency – it’s not too thin, it’s not too thick,” he explained, adding “The hotter the better.”

Crawford’s favorite chili “had good flavor. It had a good mix of vegetables, meat, beans and sauce. It wasn’t too spicy, but had enough kick to keep you smiling.”

O’Boyle invited Islanders to stop at the VFW on Grand Island Boulevard during the winter where he often makes soups on Sundays for the Bills games. Proceeds from his soup sales funds care packages to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.