As if being the chef of a new restaurant at Wind Creek Casino and Hotel wasn’t exciting enough, Colin Pinson has more to smile about.

Pearson, the chef at the casino’s Taste buffet and the new Overtime Sports Bar and Grill, and teammate chef Randall Bozeman, took down the top prize at the L.A. Gumbo Cookoff in Orange Beach earlier this year.

Pinson announced the victory during the grand opening of the casino’s new entertainment center Thursday, which houses Overtime.

“It was one of the biggest (gumbo cookoffs) in Alabama,” Pinson said. “There were 45 entries for gumbo all together.”

Pinson said he and Bozeman pulled only fresh, Alabama products for the stew. The ingredients included shrimp, oysters, Conecuh sausage, bacon, crayfish and lump crab meat.

Pinson, a Houston native and Atmore resident, said the team made a dark roux by cooking flour and butter over low heat for four hours.

“Louisiana is the home of gumbo and in Louisiana they use a dark roux,” he said.

The gumbo also called for a shrimp stock made by boiling the shrimp shells before adding a combination of chopped carrots, celery, onion and green bell pepper, known as the “mirepoix,” and then adding the other ingredients.

The concoction served over rice won first place in the contest.