The United Way Campaign got off to a successful and delicious start Monday as hundreds of people and cooks gathered at the Slidell Municipal Auditorium for the 5th Annual Red Beans ‘N Rice Cookoff.

The smell of beans, rice, sausage and spices wafted through the auditorium as over 25 teams cooked up their best pot of red beans and rice in a competition that not only raises money for a good cause, but has become one of the most popular events in the area.

“This year we had the most contestants ever since the cookoff started,” said Fire District 1 Chief of Administration and United Way Campaign Chairman Chris Kaufmann. “We even had to turn some people away.”

Darnelle Songy, left, and state Sen. A.G. Crowe dish out some of their red beans and rice for a member of the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office Monday at the 5th Annual Red Beans ‘N Rice Cookoff at the Slidell Auditorium. (Staff photo by Erik Sanzenbach)

Fire District 1 and the St. Tammany Parish Department of Fire Services host the event.

All proceeds from the cookoff go to United Way agencies in the parish.

For the price of a $7 ticket, people wandered through the auditorium eating as many different bowls of red beans and rice as they could.

To win the cookoff, the contestants had to pass muster with five judges who each sampled the 25 types of red beans and rice. The judges were Slidell Councilwoman-at-large Kim Harbison, radio personality Bernie Cyrus, Doug Mouton of WWL-TV, local businessman Bob Baker, and Dave Duplantier from Chevron, one of the cookoff’s sponsors.

“I just love red beans,” said Baker as he spooned the delectable beans into his mouth. “I’m in heaven here.”

All five judges agreed that deciding who was the best was not an easy choice. But in the end, the cooks from Slidell Memorial Hospital won first place. Second place honors went to the Young Men’s Business Club of Slidell and third place went to the United Way organization, Glitz Glamour and Giving.

But cooking a good pot of beans was not the only competition. There were other judges, wandering through the auditorium looking at all the different booths and trying to come up with the best-decorated booth.

In the end, judges Mary Dubuisson, Kim Bergeron and Tara Ingram-Hunter decided that the cooks at the “Bean It” booth were the most imaginative.

The booth, set up by Top Agent Realty, was very topical. It was sort of a cuisine homage to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” album. The booth was decorated with lights, pictures of Jackson with his album on the table.

All the cooks and servers wore black fedoras, silver vests, black shirts and of course gloves.

The People’s Choice award for best decorated booth went to Dan and Sam’s Cleaning Service.

There were some contestants though who just came to cook and did not care about themes or decorations. One of those booths was manned by state Sen. A.G. Crowe.

“We don’t have a theme — just beans,” Crowe said as he ladled out bowls of red beans and rice. “Our beans speak for themselves.”

Kaufmann said the event was a great success.

“It was a great turnout, we couldn’t be more pleased,” Kaufmann said. He added that the cookoff went past it’s scheduled 2 p.m. end because people just didn’t want to leave and they kept eating.

He said that lots of the booths ran out of red beans and rice long before everyone left.

The 2009 United Way Campaign also had a great start for their fundraising year.

The Red Beans ‘N Rice Cookoff raised $17,000 for their agencies.