“My feeling is you, just got to bring it and be the most creative people in the room. We do just that,” said Southport Brewing Company Chef and owner David Rutigliano. At the 4th annual Chowda Fest, Chefs from over 20 restaurants in Connecticut do just this.
Chowdafest event chairman Jim Keenan never stops thinking about Chowdafest—it is a year-long planning commitment. Keenan has taken the event to the next level. “It’s become bigger and better: more restaurants, more people, much more media coverage. We’ve grown from an idea to supposedly the largest competition in all of New England in terms of number of restaurants,” Keenan said.
With about a 25% increase in attendance this year, Bedford Middle School was packed with Chowdafest fans, on what has been called the 2012 “SOUPer bowl weekend.”
Run by the Unitarian Church, the festival is ultimately for charity. The proceeds go to the CT food bank that puts meals on tables for the hungry. Each attendee at the festival with their six-dollar ticket purchase gave the hungry 20 meals.
With a variety of restaurants from Super Duper Weenie to Cactus Rose Cantina, diverse flavors flowed from the pots straight to the mouths of adventurous eaters. The soups are judged in three categories being Classic New England Clam Chowder, Creative Chowder, and Soup/Bisque. The winners of this year’s Chowda Fest in the respective categories are Mansion Clam House with their classic chowder, The Ginger Man with their Sweet Potato Clam Chowder, and Crab Shell with their NY Giant Lobster Bisque.
Winning is the goal for competitive chefs around the area and therefore like Rutigliano said innovation is everything. “You should vote for us because who thinks of something like this?” Rutigliano said. His Sausage Egg and Cheese Sandwich Soup took second in the Soup/Bisque category. Fans raved about this soup do to the uniqueness and unexpected tastes that came through the small cup.
What once began as an idea to gather the community and boost the local economy during the recession has now become an annual superbowl weekend event. “[The SOUPer Bowl] is a great tie-in. It’s a party-like weekend where friends and family get together to bond over good food” Keenan said. For children and adults all over CT the Chowdafest was an event that filled their stomachs with unique flavors and got them pumped for the biggest football event of the year.
