Royal Canadian Legion, Branch #29 in Paris, hosted its fourth annual Chili Cook-off on Saturday, March 7, 2026..
Roy Haggart, past president of the Legion, said he was happy with the event’s turnout.
“This is our annual chili cook-off contest. We have seven cooks this year, and we’ve probably had around 150 people come in so far,” he said. “This is a fundraising event for us, so all the money goes to our building renovation campaign. We don’t always make a lot of money on this project, but its nice because we also get to bring people into the Legion who have never been her.e
Throughout the four-hour event, both local and out-of-town visitors were sure to stop by the Legion. For a five-dollar entry fee, they could try each one of the chilis and vote for their favourite recipes.
While some teams opted for a more traditional chili, others brought unique flavours, including a smoky brisket Texas-style but Canadian-made chili, a Mexican chili, and a white chili.
Ward 2 councillors, Steve Howes and Lukas Oakley, returned for the third time to showcase their tuned up “Made in Paris” beef, beer, and bacon chili with all local ingredients.
“We really leaned in on the Paris theme for our chili this year,” said Howes. “It’s based on a meat lovers recipe from Ted Reader, who is a famous Canadian chef who grew up in Paris.”
“There’s no beans or filler, just meat,” added Oakley, with a laugh. “We used Paris meat, Paris beer, the water is from the aquifer in Paris, the beef was smoked just down the street in Paris, and it was made by the Ward 2 Paris councillors! So it was very Paris oriented.”
The Freeats.ca team also brought an extra exciting twist with their “12 Trick Chili.” The recipe featured 12 different “tricks” used by chili makers to make their recipes pop including stout beer, brewed coffee, porcini powder, soy sauce, fish sauce, applesauce, chocolate chips, brown sugar, molasses, ketchup, cinnamon sticks and crushed barbecued corn chips on top.
Following an afternoon of taste-testing, Barry Humphrey, president of the Legion, later announced the following top three contenders.
In first place were Carrie and Vince Crum with their No Team, All Heat chili, followed by the “Never a Bride, Always a Bridesmaid” team from Ayr in second with their white chili. Oakley and Howes’ Paris chili placed third.
While the councillors and the Ayr teams are now seasoned competitors, finishing in the same places as last year, Carrie said it was her and her husband’s first time participating in the chili cook-off and that it was her mother’s chili recipe that secured the win.
“We come to the Legion for various things, but I saw post for the event come up on my Facebook feed and I figured ‘I’m going to do it!’” she said. “Today would have been my mom’s 103rd birthday, so I thought, ‘that seems like a calling, I think she wants me to try,’ so I actually made her recipe. It’s very, very old school; there’s nothing fancy to it, it’s just a classic chili.”
Howes and Oakley later added that both the first and second place winners deserved their title, noting that everyone who participated in the event brought their A-game.
“All the chilis were just great, it was a tough competition for sure,” said Oakley. “I will say I really enjoyed the ‘Always a Bridesmaid’ chili. Their recipes last year and this year were very good.”
“They deserve extra points just for their effort in their display too,” added Howes. “I just know they’ve already started plotting a strategy for next year.”
Overall, the councillors said they were happy to see that the event was a hit.
“It was great seeing the Legion packed with people having fun,” said Howes “And thanks to everybody that came out to support today, it was great seeing a lot of familiar faces in town.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
