Texas Chili Cook-off!
We have a Throwback Monday night for you!
For 10 years Johnny Keeton Studios put on what we called the “Texas Chili Cook-off” in Brussels, Belgium during Decosit at the Amigo Hotel on Monday night from 1989 to 1999.
How did a chili cook-off become an event many looked forward to in Brussels? It started the year before in our suite at the Amigo Hotel, where the Americans had to show our new lines, because of the Decosit rules. No one but European mills (originally it was only the “Dutch Masters”) were allowed to exhibit. Later we showed at Tip and eventually Decosit let everyone in. However, at the time many of us showed our lines in a personal suite at the Amigo, in the center of town off the main square. Frankly, we all wanted to stay and show at the Amigo because the leader of the USA home textile juggernaut was Regina Gurman, the holder of the key to Mastercraft jacquards.
In our suite we always had a Jamon Serrano, Reggiano cheese, and drink during the Decosit fair. By 1988 our suite was overflowing each night with visitors saying hi and seeing new gear from various American textile mills we represented. I remember the hotel staff came to me at one point that year and suggested the next year, we rent a room downstairs and have our get together. My buddy Martin Irvine from Warwick was there at the time, and suggested we have it on one night downstairs so more people could come and get together.
All the American and English mills and suppliers had their private parties, mostly by invitation only… Richloom, Lanscot-Arlen, Anju, Swavelle, P Kaufmann, Dekortex, Prestigious, Ashley Wilde...all sent invitations to their parties. The Chili Cook-off was not by invitation and all were welcome. So, on Monday night it gave the guys from Richloom a chance to have a drink with the guys from Swavelle or Covington. It really became a fun evening for us all. The first few years we cooked the Chili, but after that the Italian chef became a maven of cooking Texas Chili. We never even considered showing any fabric for some reason….we kept showing the fabrics in our suite. We had too much fun at the Chili Cook-off to talk about business. LOL
We recently got a kick viewing some of the photographs from those years of serious textile executives from around the world. Just thought this would be a good item of interest for some of the ol’ timers that may remember stopping by one of those Monday nights in September.
