Belaire Cove 25th etouffee cookoff held Sunday

The Belaire Cove Crawfish Etouffee Cookoff carried it’s popular local tradition into its 25th year Sunday, April 27.
An original cookoff organizer, Runnie Matte, recalled the early years of the cookoff, which was held in a tent rented from a Baton Rouge company. After renting the tent for three years, she said cookoff organizers decided to build a permanent shelter at the Belaire Cove Chapel grounds to hold the event.
“It hasn’t rained since,” during the annual cookoffs, she said. About two hours later, it did rain. But it was a light rain, and it came late in the event, as the auction was nearing its end. Among the items sold at the auction was a cake that brought in $230 and a six-month subscription to The Gazette went for the price of a year’s subscription.
Runnie remembered how a group from the Plasaince church would have a gumbo cookoff and would come to the crawfish etouffee cookoff, and a group from Belaire Cove would go to the gumbo cookoff.
The Plaisance cookoff is no longer being held, but the local group and a group from Grand Prairie still go to each other’s events, she said.
Winners for this year’s events were:
Washer Board -- First place, Scott Dupre and Kevin Veillon; second place, Michael Brown nd Bob Reed; and third place, Joel Manuel and Blake Perron.
Raffle -- First place, Peggy Fontenot, getting a gas grill donated by Ray Matte, True Value Hardware; second place, Melissa Hall, getting $100 donated by Rocky Rider Collision Center; and third place, Janice Dupre, getting $75 donated by Gary Ortego.
Cookoff -- First place, Cabot Corporation, with Curt Saucier as the chief cook; second place, Rocky Rider Collision Center, with Rocky Rider the chief cook and Bryan Vidrine, Dirk Deville and J.B. Brasseaux the assistant cooks; third place, Deshotels Tire and Service Center, with Rhonda Deshotels, chief cook, and Karl Deshotels, assistant cook.
Most Original Booth -- Big & Little, with John Ellis Dupre as the chief cook and Roger and Francis Blood and Wanda Dupre as the assistant cooks.
Best Decorated Booth -- Rocky Rider Collision Center.