ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Who has the best soup?

No, this isn’t a rerun of the Seinfeld “Soup Nazi” bit, but several area cooks squared off at the George P. Thames Senior Center Friday, Feb. 26 to see who would win bragging rights for the year. The event also made money for the Senior Center’s activities, said Sarah Duncan, the Senior Center’s director.

“We do a lot of different things, and this will help pay for some of them,” said Duncan. People going to lunch at the center paid for their lunch and were able to sample the soups.

Family pride and more was on the line as local cooks brought out steaming pots of their best soup. Jean Fontaine, Becky Hayes, Olivia Campbell, Loretta Johnson, Lois Stewart, and Lorraine Cooke vied for the title.

“This is a family recipe,” said Lorraine “Cookie” Cooke of Robertsdale of her cabbage soup.

Lois Steward brought her “Smoked Bone Soup,” which she said, “has all kinds of beans.”

Loretta Johnson of Fairhope brought her Split Pea soup, adding that, “My mother used to make it.”

Olivia Campbell brought her “Shrimp Corn Chowder” to the contest.

“I found the recipe on the Internet, she said. She added later that she had changed the recipe a bit, so it’s her own.

“This is our first soup contest, and thank you for coming,” said Duncan before the judges, Ari Desarro and Rhonda Brown, both representatives from area health care organizations dug in.

The contestants, decked out in white chef’s toques and aprons, sat together nervously, each craning her neck to see the judges’ reactions.

Spectators waited with good humor as Brown and Desarro tasted the soups, some more than once, and conferred.

“You know, this is tough,” Brown said between bites.

When the tasting and conferring were over, the results were announced.

First place went to Fontaine’s black-eyed pea soup. Second prize to Hayes’ “Working Woman “ soup and third prize went to Campbell’s shrimp corn chowder. Loretta Johnson’s split pea soup took honorable mention.

The winners received Winn-Dixie gift certificates and the acclaim from the crowd.

“This was a lot of fun,” declared Hayes.