Sixteen chefs participate in Warm-up-the-Winter Festival of Food at NCES

NORTH CANAAN — Mmm-mmm, good! At the risk of copyright infringement, that summed up perfectly the Warm-up-the-Winter Festival of Food  at North Canaan Elementary School last Saturday.

The PTO fundraiser attracted 16 chefs with 21 entries to be judged by tasters who streamed in steadily during the course of the two-hour afternoon event. The only complaint was that there were too many soups to try them all.

(Oh, and advice for the future: don’t start with the chili if you want your tastebuds to be aware of anything else.)

There was a trophy and a top prize of a $100 certificate to a chef supply store for the best recipe. More trophies, and Stop & Shop certificates, went to the best in each category: soup, chowder and chili.

There was a mix of professionals from local restaurants, and home cooks showcasing old family recipes or new innovations. It was as much a social event as a competition.

People chatted and compared their favorites, making a real effort to come up with an honest vote. They jotted down notes on ballot sheets. They tried their darndest to get to all the offerings, from the traditional favorites such as chicken noodle and clam chowder, to more exotic fare, such as Creole onion, apple-carrot, Tuscan bread soup and “Fire in the Hole� chili.

The youngest participant was Ali Perotti,  a seventh grader at NCES, who looked confident as she doled out helpings of her chicken noodle soup.

“I’ve only made it twice,� she said, with a shrug.

She may have been counting on votes and lobbying by friends who were hanging by her station. But, hey, this was really good soup. And what was that interesting taste?

Her dad, Rob, divulged that the “secret� ingredient is dill. Not something most grab when making soup, but one this reporter will be adding from now on. And although her mom, Laurie, is a caterer, Ali said it was Dad who taught her to cook.

“We both love to cook,� Rob Perotti said. “I have all these old recipes from my aunt and uncle. This would be a soup they would make to use up whatever they had around. They didn’t always have the ideal ingredients, but it fed the family. This soup has parsnips and turnips in it, which they would put in to clear out the root cellar. The older people here are commenting that it has a great old-fashioned flavor.�

And not just the elder set. One not-so-old woman was overheard commenting that,  in her opinion, it was the turnips that made the soup special.

Banking on a nostalgic response to garner him some votes was Brian Lazavskas (fiancé of NCES teacher and event co-chair Eve Bouchard), with his rabbit stew. NCES student Abby Merrill declared she is not an adventurous eater, and said she even surprised herself when she agreed to give the stew a try.

It was good, she declared. And, no, it did not taste just like chicken.

NCES Principal Rosemary Keilty offered up a chili that had folks commenting on its smoky undertone.

“That’s the chipotle,� she divulged.

Keilty’s family includes a couple of professional chefs, but everyone gets into a competitive spirit when they cook together, she said.

Many of the cooks said their recipes were relatively new; many were variations on recipes downloaded from the Internet. Tom Reynolds, whose cheese, bacon and broccoli concoction was second-helping worthy, confessed to having few culinary ambitions. He and girlfriend Lisa Chapman were there simply to have fun and support the PTO, they said.

But it was gratifying when parent and former chef Ron Distin, now of Top Notch Lawn Care, came over for a sample of Reynolds’ soup, which he had heard about while doling out his own equally delicious (in this reporter’s opinion) crab-and-corn chowder.

In the end, voting seemed to depend on personal taste. Tasters couldn’t get to them all, but they did try the ones that sounded enticing.

The winner for Best Recipe: Ron Distin, for his crab-and-corn chowder.

Best Chowder honors went to Distin as well.

Best Soup was Ali Perotti’s chicken noodle.

Best Chili went to Judy Blass, grandmother of an NCES sixth grader.