Still a King of Chili

I don’t remember the year but it was in the early days of Toms River hosting a Chili Cook-off which used to take place at Huddy Park.  At the time I was co-hosting the morning show on WOBM-FM and our studios were in Bayville.

To help promote the event we had the two-man “Kings of Chili” making their specialty in our parking lot and I would take a microphone outside every few minutes to report on their progress.  One of the “Kings” was Tom Yanisko who was then a fairly young guy who worked as a cook at Community Medical Center, the main sponsor of the Cook-off in those early years when it was run by a local rotary club. 

Times might have changed but Yanisko has been a regular competitor and last weekend was rewarded for his efforts during the 26^th Annual New Jersey State Chili & Salsa Cook-off which is sponsored by Downtown Toms River and held on Washington Street.  His “Silent But Deadly” red chili was awarded first place by the International Chili Society judges which qualifies Tom for the World Championships in Florida this November.

Yanisko has worked at Community Medical Center for 26 years and is the Administrative Director of Hospitality Services where he directs the meals for over 300 patients and hundreds of employees each day.  Very popular with his co-workers, the Berkeley Township resident is a certified executive chef who specializes in slow cooked braised meals.  Also qualifying for the World Championships were David Lorenz of Marlton who took first place in the Chili Verde category and salsa cook Jason Willis.

A couple of quick hitters this morning:

One of my favorite TV shows over the last few years has been “The Following” which aired its final episode on Monday as it was cancelled by Fox after three seasons.  The series finale, like so many did not wrap things up and left you to conclude how it really ended.  In truth the show was at its very best in its first season and the story and ratings died off as did many people each week.

So the NBA draft lottery was last night and the Knicks had the second best chance of landing the overall #1 selection.  Truthfully any of the top three spots would have been okay but in typical Knicks fashion they ended up with the 4^th pick in next month’s draft which my guess is will turn out to be a flop.