The Amazing Story Behind An Award-Winning Dish At The Iowa State Fair

Fair season is still going on and a very unique story is coming to light.

Fair food is one of our favorite parts of the fair. It's the only time of the year we can get some deep-fried goodness. But for one vendor at the Iowa State Fair this year, things got personal.

The Award-Winning Food

Yes, that's a funnel cake burger. Yes, it looks amazing. It is a finalist in this year's New Foods Contest at the Iowa State Fair.

It's a creation from Jada's Concessions (which has made stops at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds too).

It Is In Memory Of The Owner's Murdered Parents

At the 1996 Iowa State Fair, Jada Smith (the owner of Jada's Concessions) lost her parents in a tragedy. Her parents, Bobbie and Marilyn Blewer, were killed by a hitman who was hired by their oldest daughter, Jamie Borushaski. Now, Jamie, her husband Rodney, and the hitman (Jerimy Sneed) are all serving life sentences in prison.

But the funnel cake burger was something Jada's parents had worked on for a long time, but they never could get the recipe right. She told WQAD:

Growing up this was our summer vacation. We didn’t take trips. We didn’t go to amusement parks. We went to the fair.

Jada was 17 at the time of her parents' deaths and in 2019, she returned to the Iowa State Fairgrounds and renamed her stand Jada's Concessions. Her funnel cake burger was named in the Top 11 New Foods this year and it's, as far as she knows, not only a first for her but for her family too.

I knew it was my mom and dad’s dream to continue this dream and it’s pretty much all I’ve ever known...With a lot of trial and error and advice from family and friends, here we are in the top 11 and we’re very happy and thrilled

I'm not crying, you're crying.

That's a valid enough reason to try a funnel cake burger at the Iowa State Fair, don't you think? Jada's Concessions is open 10:00 a.m.-midnight every day of the fair, except August 18th, when it's open until 9:00 p.m.