McAllen, Texas

March 5, 2011

It was a great time at the Municipal pool park on N Bicentennial.

       On Saturday March 5 of this year, thousands of people came to Municipal Park to celebrate the City of McAllen’s first “Employee Appreciation Day”. Along with games & activities, live entertainment and food & beverage, there was a cooking competition with 5 categories. Nineteen City Department Cooking teams competed for the best in fajitas, salsa, charro beans, pan de campo and mollejas.

       The City organizers asked The producer of the original Fajita Cook-off, Christopher Julian and The Fajita Marshall and general manager, Richard Womeldorf, to conduct the judging of the contest.

They immediately jumped into action, along with the Cook-off’s official score keeper Christine Tucker, by contacting several judges, printing out the score cards & official tally sheets.

        All was going well when the first category, salsa, was turned in. Then all hell broke loose. A Cold Front blew in & boy did it blow! For the next hour, chilling rain & 50 mph winds blew and people scattered for shelter. The judging tent was completely drenched along with all the judges & judging forms. Right when we thought the day was done, here came cooking teams with their second category entry, pan de campo. When we told them we may not be able to continue, the event organizers Adrian Olguin and crew from Traffic Dept. came to our rescue with dry paper, pencils and dry judges. We continued judging the rest of the categories, the sun came out & so did all the people.

         All in all it turned out to be a beautiful day and some great tasting entries.
“This was the most challenging cook-off we’ve ever been in, said Richard Womeldorf.
“All of the City Cooking Teams endured some of the roughest weather ever and all of them hung in there & performed.

The winner of the Fajita category not only got 1st place, but a free entry into The Fajita Cook-off at PalmFest this year on Oct. 1-2 at the McAllen Convention Center. “We were so impressed with their performance, we are even adding mollejas to our Cook-off at PalmFest, said Christopher Julian.

Here is Phyllis Wlyks for the F.A.R.T. Team bring in their entry.