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TAMUQ's Chilli Cook Off 2011

A&M’s annual Chilli Cook Off happened on the night of the 7th December, outside the Texas A&M building at the pyramid courtyard, and in quite the chilly weather for Doha. Of course, this was countered by the many teams that have registered to have people sample their fiery chilly to win the night’s competition for best presentation and best taste.

Students participating were primarily from A&M, who decorated their stalls in themes to do with their team names and types of food. From rice and curry, to fries and chicken – the seasoning was all there and in full force as teams such as Chuck Norris, OMG, and several other groups competed to win the night’s awards.

For students in attendance from EC, all that mattered was good taste and several drinks to follow up the chilly that only got hotter with each group’s samples. After ballots were given out for the voting, it was finally time to announce the ultimate chilli masters of Texas A&M.

Best presentation went to the group Magma, with Muhammad Anas, Mujtaba Qureshi, and Salman Usmani. They not only had a beautifully presented and tasty rice and meat dish, but also prepared it at the EC dorms, much to everyone’s surprise and admiration.

The runners up to best taste were the OMG team, with Maha Deghbag, Dina Hammada and Ihab Risk, with an assortment of Arabian food. The winning team consisted of Mr. Timothy Canterbury, a kinesiology teacher in Texas A&M with students Hana Shiraz and Anam Waheed with their two chilli sauces. In true spirit of inclusion, one sauce was mild and one quite spicy, the former for those who aren’t too good at handling chilli. This was Mr. Canterbury’s third win in the competition, and we can only hope that he will be bested one of those years with a better cook here from EC.

The event ended with a grand finish for A&M students – the announcement of the following year’s Student Body President and Vice President, which went to Fatima Makki and Aisha Al Qahtani, respectively. The class representatives for each year were also announced, following voting that happened earlier that week for the change in Student Body Government.

This five-years-running tradition in TAMUQ was perhaps started by the peculiar fact that chilli is the national dish of the state of Texas, which was mentioned by Mr. Canterbury, or perhaps there was too much of a demand for a serious cooking competion here at EC. Either way, the Chilli Cook Off will hopefully always be a favourite event for EC students in December, and for those gifted with cooking to finally have some recognition – at least by sizzling chilli standards.

Pictures taken from the TAMU-Q Student Affairs Facebook page

by Alya Al Harthy Jan 5th, 2012

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