BATON ROUGE - Capital Area United Way (CAUW) kicked off its 2008 Campaign with the organization’s 21st Annual Campaign Kickoff and Jambalaya Cookoff at the Baton Rouge River Center Exhibition Hall Thursday.

A team of Ascension Parish jambalaya cookers from Motiva Enterprises captured the CAUW jambalaya contest, billed as one of the largest in Louisiana.

The Motiva team came out ahead of 30 other cooking team teams, based on judges scores on appearance, rice texture, meat flavor, and overall flavor of portions submitted.

When asked the secret to his prize-winning jambalaya, Motiva Enterprises’ Cooking Team Captain Barrett Jenkins explained, “I put in just the right amount of water and included plenty of meat.”  

Teams arrived as early as 2:30 a.m. to start cooking their potential prize winning jambalaya, with the jambalaya they prepared sold for $3 a plate,  with all proceeds going to CAUW. Over 3,000 jambalaya lunches were sold raising more than $9,300 for the organization.

Thousands were in attendance to commence the campaign and to recognize donors, supporters, and volunteers for all of their efforts in supporting the 10-parish Capital Area through CAUW.

Community judges including Reporter Wade McIntyre of The Weekly Citizen, had the tough job of judging over 30 pots of jambalaya. After totaling up the judges scores, Motiva was first, Ferro Corporation was second, Americas Styrenics, LLC was second. 

hile companies cooked, Country Legends 107.3 FM provided music and a live remote, CAUW Member Agencies were on hand giving out information and helping out in the kids play area where children had a blast jumping in spacewalks, climbing a rock wall and playing Guitar Hero. Hollywood Hal and Rhinestone Al were Ringmasters of this year’s circus-themed event.

Capital One Bank, The Mall at Cortana and the Baton Rouge River Center were major sponsors.