I worked at a Newport restaurant years ago that was very proud of the fact that they were the Chowderfest Cook Off Champs, at one point I was able to watch the process in making the award winning chowder...it was a bit surprising to see that the secret ingredient was 98% giant cans of Snow's Clam Chowder and then some stuff they added to make it something other than straight Snow's Clam Chowder out of a can
