Alex Paul
It was a family affair Saturday during the first Sweet Home Senior Center chili cookoff.
Edith Sorgen took the grand prize, second place went to her daughter, Janie Hartman, and Sorgen’s sister, Dorothy Smith, tied for third place with Patty Hankins of A and W Restaurant.
After the judging, several dozen participants had the opportunity to dine on all of the entries.
Sorgen knows her way around the kitchen. She spent 20 years working in restaurants from Sweet Home to Portland.
“I don’t measure anything,” she said of the winning entry. “I just put a lot of stuff in.”
Some of that “stuff” includes hamburger, garlic, salt, chili pepper, crushed chili peppers and red chili beans.
“It’s not really hot,” Sorgen said in reply to a question about the chili’s temperature quotient.
The event was the first cooking contest Sorgen has entered.
“It was fun, sure, yes it was,” she said of the event.
Her daughter said that although her mom’s chili is excellent, her real forte’ is beef burgundy.
“Just ask my grandson,” Janie Hartman said.