Sanibel team retains title of People’s Choice at challenge
The people have spoken again: An island fire district crew still serves up the best chili around.
The Sanibel Fire and Rescue District joined 11 other groups to battle it out at the 5th Annual Lee County Chili Challenge on Feb. 3 at Stu’s Motorcycles in Fort Myers. This year’s five-member team brought home the trophy and honor of People’s Choice Champion for the second consecutive year.
“We’re happy to have it for another year,” team leader and engineer-paramedic Arian Moore said, adding that the judges even said they won by a “wide margin” when announcing the winners.
The Fort Myers Fire Department reclaimed the title of Judges’ Champion — the team’s third time overall earning the recognition. Last year, it went to Lee County Emergency Medical Services.
The first year of the competition, the Sanibel team won the judges’ title.
“Both (trophies) would be great, but we like the People’s Choice. The big one is the big one, but it’s judged by very few people,” Moore said, explaining that three judges made up this year’s panel.
“The People’s Choice was judged by 350 people,” he added.
For this year’s chili, Moore and Deputy Fire Chief John DiMaria, engineer-paramedic Bryan Clement, firefighter-paramedic Mike Tejeda and probational firefighter Ronnie Petito stuck with what works.
“It’s kind of our proprietary recipe, but we tweaked it some. We added a little more spice to it,” he said, adding that the accoutrement was a sweet jalapeno cornbread topped with a chipotle cream cheese.
“That kind of balanced out the heat of the chili,” Moore said.
As usual, the team arrived at the site before the sun was even up and secured its normal spot.
“At 7 o’clock, we started chopping and cooking. All the meat and everything is cooked the day of,” he said, noting that they probably made five or six gallons of chili, which included 10 pounds of meat.
The one gallon left that was brought back to the fire station did not make it through one shift.
As for next year’s competition, the team is already planning.
“We already have our changes in mind,” Moore said. “We take the whole year to work it out.”
Jerry’s Foods sponsored the team.
“They provided everything that we needed food-wise, which is awesome,” he said.
Moore also thanked those who supported and voted for them.
“We had a lot of people throw us the People’s Choice, whether it was islanders or not,” he said.
The other participating teams were the Disabled American Veterans, Lee County EMS, Oasis High School JROTC Shark Battalion Raiders, PFC Paul E. Ison Marine Corps League Det. 90, Polish Legion of American Veterans, Retired Fire Chiefs, South Trail Fire Cadets, South Trail Fire District Benevolent Association, South Trail Fire Protection and Rescue Service District, and Tunnel to Towers/FDNY.
As in past years, the proceeds from this year’s competition will benefit the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, Injured Warriors Fund of Florida and Collier-Lee Honor Flight.