After tasting all eight foods and carefully evaluating each item, the all-star panel of judges named their winners of the 2015 Big Tex Awards.
The judges named Christi Erpillo's Fernie's Holy Moly Carrot Cake Roly the Best Tasting item and Isaac Rousso's Smoky Bacon Margarita the Most Creative.
Erpillo has been a finalist in nine of the past 11 competitions and her family is known for first introducing the funnel cake to the State Fair of Texas in the early 1980s. Her Holy Moly Carrot Cake Roly fills golden-baked bread swirled with cinnamon with carrot cake, raisins and julienne carrots and rolls it with a coating of cream cheese and breading mixture.
With two finalists in this year's Big Tex Choice Awards, Isaac Rousso hit home with the Smoky Bacon Margarita. A front-runner in the creative category, the drink takes a frozen lime margarita and infuses it with the smokiness of bacon.
Audience member Bridget Russell joined the judges — Dallas Maverick Devin Harris, former Dallas Cowboy Drew Pearson, TV show host Dan Rodo, chef John Tesar and city councilwoman TIffinni Young — to select this year's winners.
For the first time ever, the Fair is holding an additional food competition for fans. Fairgoers who taste all eight finalists can go online to BigTex.com and cast their vote starting Sept. 25. The winner will be announced the final weekend of this year's exposition.
