New England Regional Chili Cook Off 5/1/10

">New England Regional Chili Cook Off 5/1/10

This was probably the biggest turn-out for a cook off that I've seen. Cheerleaders, bikers, clowns, firefighters, ambulance corps, vendors, volunteers,and of course chili cooks. Lots of chili cooks. It looked like a tent city from the street as I was rolling in. At the cooks meeting, at 9:00am I learned there would be 53 red chili entries, 30 something for Green chili and 23 salsa. Being one of the earlier cook-offs of the year, I knew all the best cooks would be in attendance and my chances were slim. Painfully slim.

I started my prep work the night before, getting my tri-tip roast for the red chili and my perfectly trimmed pork loin for my green chili, cut into perfect little cubes. Both were delicately placed in a baggie and put in the fridge. Martha Stewart would have been so proud.

Then I prepared my salsa, seeding and chopping 6 tomatoes on the vine that had been purchased the weekend before, placed on the kitchen counter, but with strict instructions to the family that they not be placed in the refrigerator under penalty of a severe tongue lashing. This in order to give the tomatoes the optimum chance to gain maximum flavor I then took my peppers, onions, garlic, and other veggies in hand and proceeded to chop, slice and dice in the proper proportion as to give the judges the perfect salsa experience.

After giving a nice squeeze of lime and giving a quick taste, I noticed the salsa was a bit, well, bland.

Hmmm. Needs salt. So I added salt. A lot. Now that's better. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I screwed up. I forgot the cardinal salsa rule. No salt until just before turn in to the judges or you will have mush. I tossed and turned all night trying to figure out if I could save this mess.

Well, I did my best the next day at the cook-off to salvage the salsa. I added more fresh stuff, made it taste good, but I could tell it was too mushy and off color. Not the bright colors the judges will expect.

Oh well, life goes on. I turned it in and said a Hail Mary.

About the same time the Youth division was turning in their red chili. So I stuck my head in the judges tent to take a peek. As soon as I did, I was asked if I wanted to help judge the chili for the yutes. I had never judged before, but I had an expectation of what to look for, so I agreed to help out. There were 8 entries to start. One was disqualified because they added beans. A no no in the competition chili world. So down to 7.

The other judges and I were instructed to be constructive on our comments and not ruin these kids for life. To be honest, I was very nice. The chili itself was, overall, pretty good. The kids made all the mistakes we all have. Chop meat, over cooked meat, too salty, too mild, too bland, etc... I tried them all and made my comments and tried to remember which ones I likes the best. Then I ranked the top 3, signed my sheet and went back to my tent. My good deed for the day.

I ended up being ahead of schedule on my Red and Green chilis so I took another walk and... wouldn't you know it? The hot pepper eating contest was just starting. They were looking for about 8 hearty fools to partake in this sick event. And no. I didn't compete. I can eat hot stuff as well as the next guy, but after making habanero hot sauce for the last 10 years, I have learned to respect the mighty chili and learned the evil it can do. Well, these guys were amazing. They were popping jalapenos, serranos, cayenne's in with no problem. Then came the habaneros. This separated the men from the boys. They dropped off one by one, turning all kinds of colors, gasping for breath and running for the port a potties. Until there were 2 left. At the end, to break the tie, they gave them 3 habaneros to eat. One guy ate 2 right away and was reaching for the third, when the other finalist, got up, shook his head and said no way. Smart move, but I think it was a little too late to save himself. I'm sure he is curled up in a corner some where right about now.

There was also a hot wing eating contest. The one I entered last year. No, I avoided this as well and hung around to watch just long enough to see the contestants realize that this was a big mistake. I had to leave the area because the smell was giving me flashbacks.

Back at the tent, I wrapped up the Green, then Red chilis, turning in what I thought was my best effort so far. I turned them in, served up some chili to our chili eating public, packed up my car and waited for the results of the judging.

Well, as fate would have it, I got a top 10 in salsa and nothing in red or green. My comments on the judging sheets gave me some insight as to where I went wrong. I did see some mushy comments on the salsa. Arggggghhhh!

Anyway, we do it all again in 3 weeks 5/22/10, at the First Annual Doc Dowling, Platt Tech Chili Cookoff.

My Bad Bandito team mates will be working hard to put this event together, so they will not be competing. So that gives me an opportunity to branch out on my own and announce my new chili team.

KISS OF IRON, GOURMET CHILI. Stop by my tent and I will give you the story behind the name.

Hope to see you all there.

CB

CT State Chili Cook-Off 9/19/09

OK. I completed the chili cook-off trifecta. 3 this year, which is a lot for me. A mere rookie compared to the hard core cooks who do 10 to 15 or more each Summer. To prepare for one of these things, I need to take a day off in order to shop, chop, cook and pack. The time I spend doing all the prep work makes easier to get down to business come cook-off day

The bulk of the work involves making the meat for the People's Choice Chili. I usually get about 8 or 9 lbs of chop meat, cook the fat out of it, add veggies and spices and let it cook and cool off for a while. What results is 2, 1 gallon baggies of rock hard chili meat starter, or as I like to call it, the dreaded "Meat Brick".

After seeing the weather forecast for the day of the Cook-Off, I knew we were going to have a huge turn out and going to need a boat load of chili to feed all these folks until 4 o'clock. Mike came prepared with what looked like at least 3 gallons all ready to go. I took a look at it and knew it would be gone in less than 2 hours, so I took a brick out of the cooler and tossed it in the pot. I warmed it up, added all the necessary ingredients and put it to the side until it was needed. Pure genius!

The day was as perfect as I could have asked for. Not a cloud in the sky and just a light breeze (as compared to the Maine typhoon) Mike, Jack, Fran and I had a grand ol' time cooking away while we kept up or strength with our favorite beverages. Friends gathered and voted for our chili as often as was legal. So many people came by and sampled our salsa, amazed at how good it was. I must have had at least 3 marriage proposals as a result. I told them I was taken, but Jack was available.

The people's choice competition is a unique phenomenon in the chili world. Since all the cook-offs are for charity, it generates a good part of the revenue for the cause. In this case, Elderly Meals on Wheels. All the chili cooks are required to make it, and whoever gets the most votes from the tasting public wins. Simple enough. Of course the cooks who expect to win this will need to invite everyone they ever met to the cookoff, decorate their booth within an inch of its life, ring sirens and cowbells for each vote, hire swimsuit models, kiss babies, give away chips, cheese, bumper stickers, and oh yeah, not run out of chili.

Fran was giving away chili all day while we worked on our competition Red, Green and Salsa for the judges. We ended up running low on the 2nd pot, so I took out the last Meat Brick and doctored it up in record time. In the end, we must have given away close to 9 gallons of the stuff and we made it to 4pm with about a quart to spare.

The results:
Well, my reign as Salsa champ came to an end after 3 years. Hey, it had to end sooner or later. Jack was the big winner with 2nd place in Red chili. He attempted to take out the first place winner, but the police dogs got to him before he could do any real damage to the champ. We all admire Jack for his good sportsmanship. He should be released any day now. I think I ended up with a 4th place in Green chili and Mike got 3rd place in the best booth competition. I'm happy to say that after all our labor, we got 3rd place in People's Choice. No money, mind you, just and honorable mention and a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. (maybe it was the 1800 Silver Agave)

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes and support.
I'm now done for the year and will look forward to doing it all again next May in the NE Regional.

Take Care,
Chris

Maine State Chili Cook-Off 8/29/09

As I was trekking up to Maine,
a mere 4 freaking hours from CT, I was thinking "this is a State
Cookoff, it's going to be alright. I'll sweep all the categories and
be off to the World Championship without a doubt. Piece o'cake!
I
got there at 7:00am. No one was there but Mike. Uh oh! Is this thing
cancelled? Did I just wake up at 2:30 am to travel in the wind and
rain to Maine in order to be told to go home and have a nice t-shirt
for your trouble?
No. It was on. They moved into the JHS gym. One
problem. If you use propane, you can't go in the gym. You have to
stay outside in the monsoon and try to cook chili... Well, it sucks to be you, doesn't it?

Ok,
we're not wimps, we can cook in hurricane Danny. Danny, what kind of a
hurricane name is that anyway! Mike put up sides to the tent and we
were pretty much isolated from the elements. (for a while)...

So
we were doing our thing outside when I meandered in the gym and found
out that the electric in the gym was out. No one was able to cook for
about 45 minutes and they had to wait until the JHS technical crew
fixed the problem. Hmmmmm! Sounds like a little justice to me.
Meanwhile, outside it was raining sideways. The sides to the tent we
were in were basically a big square piece of plastic. Kind of like a
sail. Well the sail picked up the gusts nicely and Mike, being on the
end got his table full of supplies knocked over at least 4 times.
Every ten minutes we heard a crash and wondered who the next victim
was. It was like cooking on a fishing boat where nothing was anchored
down.

Anyway, we did our best, regardless of the elements.
Every once in a while a lost soul would come by looking for chili
samples. We told them, no less than 50 times that chili tasting was in
the gym and we were stuck outside as punishment for our sins. They
gave us a pitiful look and walked into the gym to find it warm, dry and
full of happy chili tasting, bazaar shopping, fools.

OK. The
results. My salsa was the best I ever made it. Fresh farm tomatoes,
seasoned to a tee. The green was another experiment in which I had no
idea what I was doing. If not for Mike, my tutor in the Verde arts, I
would have poisoned the judges (yet again). The red was a total
disaster. I ran out of time and the meat was just a bowl of rubber
bands. Good tasting, but rubber bands just the same.

We turned
in our best efforts to the judges and..... Well, Mike got best booth.
Thank God! If anyone inside the gym got it, I would have rushed the
stage!! No, it was justified. He put up with alot and we all
benefited from his effort. For some unknown reason, I got skunked
again in salsa. What? What is wrong with you people? Nevermind...
I'm calm. On the other end I got a 2nd place in Green Chili (verde).
What? I was calling it chicken soup all day because that is what it looked like. Mike coached me all along
and still thought it was chickeny, but I could care less at that point
and just turned it in. Well. I was happy.

All in all, we had a good time. I got to see good friends and have a good laugh.

Mark your calendars, 3 weeks, Saturday Sept 19th is the CT State Chili Cookoff. It begins around 11:00 or so. Not
really sure. Take exit 50 off of I-95 and make your first right. The
cookoff is on your right, in the park. It should be going full steam
about 12 or so. Come on by and get some chili, see the classic cars,
and take a pony ride. It will be a lot of fun. I will be there to
defend my 3 time Salsa Championship. By the looks of things, it could be a struggle.

Please feel free to invite anyone you think may be interested. http://www.chilicookoff.com/Event/Event_Display.asp?EventID=2467

Take care,
Chris

New England Regional Chili Cook-Off 5/3/09

As I was driving through the rain up to Hartford, I was thinking this is a total waste of time and money, but I already made the commitment, so let's get it done and go home....
I got there and found out that my team mates had split up for personal reasons. One had kept the Bad Banditos name and the other became the Chile Dogs. They had a dog theme. Great! Now what do I do? So I swallowed my pride and set up with Mike in the Chili dog tent, with all the cute decorations, stuffed doggies everywhere and people biscuits. What the hell are people biscuits? They brought a boom box that played "Who Let The Dogs Out" over and over until I wanted to fillet one of those cute little stuffed doggies.

Anyway, I set up my stuff and got to cooking. My salsa came out great and with Mike's help, I cooked up a decent batch of Green chili. I figured the judges would love me and I had this one in the bag. So I turned those two masterpieces in to the judges and got my red chili started. The red chili was another story. The meat had the consistency of shoe leather and over all, it tasted lousy. After an hour of fighting with it, I pretty much gave up. I dumped a bunch of spices in it, a little beef stock, put the cover on and walked away very annoyed.

At about that time, they were calling for volunteers to participate in the hot chicken wing eating contest. I figured it would be kind of interesting to take a few pictures of these poor fools killing themselves, so I brought my camera and proceeded to the contest area. Well, a large crowd had gathered and the organizers were calling up those who had given their names ahead of time to join the contest. Apparently 2 of them had a change of heart and bowed out. Now there were 2 seats left. The guy with the bullhorn turned to the crowd and asked for volunteers. Eventually, a 20 year old girl sat down at the table and the crowd cheered. They needed one more. Well, I figured, I like wings. I can eat 10 in 5 minutes. I can at least beat a girl!!! They can't be THAT hot!!! Mike kept pushing me toward the table until I had volunteered myself

So they made us sign a release, saying we won't sue them, we don't have any allergies, we will pay for all hospital bills...etc etc etc. They made us wear these blue rubber hospital gloves for safety. Whatever. I figured it's just for show. Then the wings came... Then the judge said GO! I grabbed one and choked it down. Easy. The next one was so overcooked, it was like eating sawdust...really really hot sawdust. I chewed and chewed, but it took almost a minute to choke it down and we weren't allowed to drink anything. The guy next to me finished his
and started eating from the 20 year old girl's plate. I knew I was out of my league and figured that instead of trying to beat this animal, I would stop and give my digestive system a break. As it turned out, it was the right move and I just finished 4 wings coming in 5th of 10. The girl had one, plus 2 the freak, who ended up winning, ate for her.

So after shedding a few tears and quaffing a few beverages, I returned to my chili. Problem was, I couldn't taste anymore. I had no idea if it was any good or not. We had about 15 minutes until turn in and I had no clue. I figured it was a lost cause anyway, so I turned it in to the judges the way it was.

We had 55 contestants for Red chile, 33 for Salsa and 30 for Green chili. There was a preliminary and final table for all three categories. As they announced the name for Salsa, I figured I had at least made the finals table. No luck. Same with the Green. Well, that was it, my day is shot. Well, when they announced red, they called me up to the stage with the rest of the finalists. Unbelievable! I thought I turned in such garbage, but the judges in their wisdom thought it was good. No prize money this time, but I did OK. Now I know I have no idea what I'm doing. But it's alot of fun and I'll be back next year.

Thanks to everyone for your support and well wishes,
Chris

World Championship Chili Cook-Off, Las Vegas 10/11/08

Just a not so quick update on this past weekend's ICS Chili Cook-off Championships in Las Vegas.

The Bad Bandito team, Mike, Jack and I all qualified this year in one way or another to go to the WCCC and since it was in Las Vegas and notOmaha Nebraska, we all made the trip.

Mike and I qualified in the Salsa competition. There were approximately 130 competitors, depending on who you talk to. Each had to win either a State or Regional competition within the last year to qualify.

All I brought with me was about 8 tomatoes from Sherwood Farms in Easton, some garlic and a few spices. I had to run out to Walmart and buy my peppers, onions etc. So one of Mike's friends and his wife, who live in this van they drive around the country drove us to Walmart.This thing has a generator hanging out the back, an AC coming
out the top and drapes in the windows. The inside has a bed, sink, stove, microwave, toaster oven, cabinets, fan, shower and some other things I can't really describe. But there wasn't a seatbelt to be found, so I just held on for dear life as we zoomed around the corners. Longestride of my life.

Anyway we get to Walmart, the biggest one I've ever seen, which is quite a bit off of the strip and I get to see the REAL residents of LV. Not the ones in the casinos, the locals. It seemed like something out of a science fiction movie. Zombies everywhere!! The peopleseemed to all be in a trance and very unhappy. I asked my travel mates
if they saw the same thing and they agreed. Very spooky. Ifyou visit, don't bring the children.

Well, we got what we needed and I survived the trip back to the hotel. I ran up to Mike's room to get started making the salsa, since he had the knife, cutting board and the fridge. An hour and a half later, I completed my creation and succeeded in making his room smell like the kitchen in a Mexican restaurant. Not bad, but you wouldn't want tosleep there.

After a night of cruising the strip and eating some pretty nasty buffet food, I wake up and get ready to turn in the salsa. One trick I've learned the hard way is that it's OK to do a lot of the work ahead of time, but DONT add any salt or it will turn into a slushy mess that no judge will want to eat. So I add salt, pepper and cilantro at the end, just before turn-in. No problem, but we had given all the stuff to Jack for his Green Chili cook-off that day. We had no knives, cutting board or spoons to mix it up. We rush around the building and get what we need, get the salsa "just right" and turn it in with about 3 minutes to spare. I just had a minor heart attack.

Well, to wrap it up, we had a great time all day, yapping with the other cooks and frightening the customers. At judging time, I expected nothing, even though I got alot of compliments from those who sampled my salsa.
So with a Margarita in one hand and a fat stogie in the other I just stood in the back as they start calling out the names.

There were at least 5 judging tables and the top few from each table make it to the final table to be re-judged. They annouced all the finalists to the stage and believe it or not, they called out my name. From these 15 they called the top 5. That's about where it ended for me.

Anyway, I was very surprised and happy just to make it to the stage, so I consider it a good trip all in all.

I went back and looked at the scores and the judges' comments on what was missing from my salsa. Salt. Lousy Salt. There was not enough salt. SALT!!!!!! I felt like one of those people in the Wal Mart, in a bit of a fog, but quickly recovered and went out for some more yummy buffet fare.

Anyway, thanks to all my friends and well wishers. It was a great experience and hopefully I can do it again some day.

All the best,
Chris

CT State Chili Cook-Off 9/21/08

Hello all,

Just a quick note to thank everyone who wished me luck and came by our tent at the CT State Cook-off in New Haven.

It was a perfect day and there was a tremendous turn out. We helped raise a lot of money for Meals on Wheels of New Haven which is dealing with many state funding cutbacks.

As far as chili goes, l got a first and second place vote for green, which I made for the first time, but didn't place in the money. Red chili was another experiment, but no luck.

Finally, some good news. I repeated (3rd time) as Salsa champion and hoisted the huge check for $100 over my head. I will be joining my team mates who also qualified during the year, at the World Championships in Las Vegas, Oct 10-12th.

I had qualified the last 2 years, but since the World Championships are in Vegas instead of Omaha, and my teammates also qualified, and since I'll be an old man before I win with my chili, and since my wife was gracious enough to give me the weekend off, I've decided to go for it this year.

Thanks again.

All the best,
Chris

5/5/08 New England Regional Chili Cook-Off

Well, the NE Regional Cookoff in Somers CT was a rousing success. It was COLD,Cold, bloody cold, but we braved the elements and managed to do OK.

At the cooks meeting before the cookoff, we were told that there was about 60 cooks for Red Chili, and about half that for Green and salsa, so we had a large turnout. Cooks came from all over New England, and the furthest traveled from Texas.

Not sure how many spectators there were, but I would guess at least 3 or 4 thousand. I spent half my time handing out the people's choice to the crowd. People would ask you over and over what's in it, and I'd give the standard response, "Chop meat, beans, sausage, spices, tomatoes, peppers, blah blah blah. After a while I started messing around with the locals and said, muskrat, coyote, squirrel and a couple of unidentified small furry animals I hit with the Honda on the way up to Hartford.

I think one lady took me seriously. She gave me this wild look...like I just ate her daughter or something.

Did I say it was cold? Couldn't feel my hands toward the end. Thankfully no fingertips were lost or added to the people's choice chili.

Anyway, on to the results. There was a preliminary and final judging for the Salsa and the Red Chile, since there were so many cooks. Jack made the final table in Salsa and finished in the top 10. Mike also did well and had a top 10 finish in Green chili. I was able to make it to the final table in Red chili and also had a top 10 finish. This after totally re-working my recipe after I gagged the judges at last year's CT state cookoff. All in all, The Bad Bandito team held their own and did the Fairfield area proud.

A big thanks to all our well-wishers, family and friends. We'll keep you updated on any future cookoffs.
Make sure to mark your calendars for the CT State cookoff in New Haven on Sept 20th.

All the best,
Chris