Eleven cooks and cooking teams added peppery zing to downtown Pembroke at lunchtime Saturday during the third annual Chili Cook-Off hosted by the North Bryan Chamber of Commerce.

The cooks prepared their chili at home, and then brought it to the Pembroke Senior Center, where adults paid $5, children $2.50, for all they could eat. To cool those palates, iced tea donated by McDonald’s and ice cream given by Blue Bell from its North Bryan County distribution center were also included in the ticket price.

The cook-off doesn’t so much raise funds for the chamber as create a fun event in the otherwise inactive month of February, said Mary Warnell, president of the North Bryan Chamber of Commerce.

“Our funds that we make usually just offset our expenses,” she said. “We really don’t make any money on it at all. It’s really just an event for the community.”

For more, pick up a copy of the Feb. 23 edition of the News.