Chili Cookoff Awards

Trophies and Awards are our specialty.  Sure, the other stuff is fun too, but our real expertise is in the awards and recognition arena.  So you’re planning a chili cook-off, and if you’re like our family and friends, your group is extremely competitive.  Not me so much, but my husband.  He’s the king of smack talk.  But, that’s another story altogether.  Hype is a good thing, and if you have really cool awards to give out to your winners, it goes a long way for bragging rights.  So here’s my suggestions for great awards for you competition:

A yearly competition: If your chili cookoff is an ongoing event, a perpetual trophy is a great choice.  It can be passed around year after year, and all the winners can relive their moment of glory and rub it in.  It’s also a fun thing to go back and forth between different core members of your cookoff group.  If you decide to go with a perpetual award, it’s also nice to have another smaller award for the winner to keep for him/herself.  Ribbons are a classic choice, blue for first place, red for second, and white for third (coming soon!).  Think of the iconic chili pot with a big old blue ribbon on it!  Or you can do a smaller trophy, like an acrylic star award or a rising star trophy, with the name and date of your competition.  Its also fun to give medals, gold, silver and bronze, just like the Olympics, customized with the name and date of your competition on the back.

A one time shot: The ribbons, medals and smaller awards listed above would work great, or you could do a larger one-time trophy, like the Large Chili Cookoff Award.  If you don’t want to go the personalized award route, gift certificates are always a hit or a good bottle of red wine that accompanies the heat of chili.  We will also carry cute aprons and chef hats that would make great prizes too.  I just ordered 8 different chili themed aprons, so check back to see them.  A gift basket with a cute apron, a couple of different hot sauces and a ladle is a fun prize too.

Gag prizes: Our family and friends have a great sense of humor, and like to give each other a hard time.  If your competition needs a little something to kick it up a notch, try giving some gag prizes.  My favorite is the “Worst Batch of Chili Award”, which is in the shape of a golden toilet.  This is for your last place chili entry.  You can let everyone know the award is coming before the event to really hype up the competition.  Other less crass prizes include the Chili Champion Sash, for the beauty queen of the bunch, or the king’s Chili Champion Septor, for either the winner or the guy with the biggest ego.  The sash and septor will be added to the site soon as well.

Judges gifts: If you are using judges for your competition, make them feel special and acknowledged.  Medals are a great choice – one size fits all, and they are affordable.  Choose a neck drape color that matches your decorations or theme, and make sure to honor them in front of the group.  It’s a tough job sampling all of that yummy, spicy, warm chili, but somebody’s got to do it.

I will keep adding ideas as we keep adding products.  Check back often to see what’s new.

Cheers!

Jessica A.

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