FIEA’s 15th Annual Chili Cook-off Scheduled for Feb. 6

January 21, 2026

Do you have what it takes to claim the title of best chili in UCF Downtown? Prove it by submitting a crockpot of at least 6–8 quarts of your absolute best chili to compete in FIEA’s 15th Annual Chili Cook-off on Friday, February 6! Sampling begins at 12 p.m. in the Soundstage at UCF Downtown—and bragging rights are on the line.

Textured fiery background with orange crockpot of steaming chili with text on top that reads FIEA's 15th Annual Chili Cook-off on February 6, 2026 at 12 p.m. in the Soundstage

How It Works

Enter as an individual or bring your strongest lineup as a team! Teams may be formed from FIEA students or capstone teams, FIEA faculty and staff, and other groups from around UCF Downtown, the Nicholson School of Communication, and Creative Village. Our judges will battle it out to rank the competition and award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place honors. Vegetarian chilis and cornbread are welcome. Hot dogs, condiments, and drinks will be provided.

Competitors and attendees must RSVP by 5 p.m. on Friday, January 30.

RSVP BY JAN. 30

UCF Downtown staff and students serve themselves chili in crockpots lined up along long tables with black tablecloths in the CMB Soundstage

Know Before You Go: Bringing in Your Chili and Cornbread

You will not have enough time to warm your chili fully in the crockpot alone if it was refrigerated the night before. It needs to be re-heated and then kept warm in the crockpot. We DO NOT have burners at FIEA to warm cold pots of chili.

In addition, many bring add-ons like shredded cheese, sliced jalapenos, sour cream, fritos, etc. These add-ons are not part of the judging, so they may add to your chili experience, but only the chili is being judged.

Interesting in judging the competition?

If you can differentiate the good ones from the great ones, contact Stephanie de Sousa to get into the judging committee.

Be a judge

How Chili Will Be Judged

A panel of judges will be assembled, made up of non-competing UCF faculty, staff, alumni, and others. Chili should LOOK, SMELL and TASTE good. Below is the rubric the judges will be using:

COLOR: Chili should look good (appearance). Allow some leeway when evaluating color. For example, “red” chili may range from reddish to reddish-brown or brown. Not so good are shades of gray, black, yellow, pink, or camouflage. Excessive grease also mars appearance. Lighting conditions vary which can affect color and appearance evaluation.
AROMA: Chili should smell good. A good aroma is a tipoff to good taste. Beware of strange aromas or just plain bad smells.
TASTE: Chili should taste good above all else. Although individual opinions will vary, a really good taste will stand out.

CONSISTENCY: Chili should be a good meat and gravy combination. Chili should not be dry, watery, grainy, lumpy, or greasy, but just good and smooth. Meat should be tender but not broken down. We are allowing beans in this competition, but normally any filler, including beans would be excluded.
AFTERTASTE: Residual taste should be pleasant (not bitter, metallic, or foul). Also present may be afterbite, which is that glow that develops in the mouth (front bite) and throat (back bite) that says this is chili rather than soup or stew. The absence, presence, or level of bite is a matter of personal preference.