The North Market Fiery Foods Festival which Joe attended on February 18 had two Chili Cookoffs, one for the Customer (i.e. non-professional food people) and one for the Chefs (professional food chefs and similar trades). Since we’ve hosted Chili Cookoffs ourselves, it was interesting to see some of the similarities and differences when someone else puts one on. Joe was our intrepid reporter, and he paid most attention to the Chef’s Chili Challenge, so here’s his take on it….

OK, here’s how the lineup looked from one angle. You paid your $5 to get a bracelet that allowed you to try as many chilis as you wanted. Once the introductions were started by the chili emcee, the judging began. Now I’ve never been a fan of judging though a small panel of judges. Rather, I’ve always liked a popular vote since it allows the tasting & judging to appeal to a broader audience.

Here’s one of the chefs, Henry Butcher, stirring up his chili. His was noteworthy in one regard, which was that he poured his chili over grits. This is what really separated this contest from ones done by the International Chili Society where there’s no beans allowed or any other ingredients that would take away from the pure flavor of the chili itself. I did try this one, and it was pretty decent…but it was hard to compare with the others because it was so different.

Here’s two more competitors’ chili entries. The one on the right, by Eric Fladen, was a turkey chili that ultimately ended up being the winner. See all the condiments in front of his chili crockpot? I always thought that if you needed that much extra stuff, your chili must be fairly mediocre. Obviously the judges disagreed. Andrew Brannin’s chili, the one on the left, was more my style. If memory serves, he used some serrano and scotch bonnets in his chili. Damn good to me, but got no love from the judges.

Two more contestants here, and sadly I didn’t get pictures of them all. On the left is John Hard’s (CaJohn) entry and one the right is Ken Smith’s (of Posh!Nosh!) entry. I don’t remember much about Ken’s chili, but John’s was really good. Like good enough to win. More on that later….

Here’s CaJohn giving his pitch about his chili for the judges and the crowd. As it turns out, he was the only one of the contestants in the professional division who wasn’t a working professional chef. While he may not be a chef, he definitely knows chili.

Our chili judges at work during the actual competition. See how excited Miriam Abbott was (to gentleman’s right who has his spoon in his mouth) about tasting the chili? The guys seemed more into it, to varying degrees. It was actually funny to see the judges have to drink after trying certain chilis…since none of the ones I actually tried seemed all that hot to me. Keep in mind that this was before I fried my tastebuds in the chile pepper eating contest.

This is Eric Fladen, the chili winner, after donning his champion’s robe. I kept expecting the crowd to shart shouting, “Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!” or something vaguely boxing-ish. It made me glad that we always chose to give away a trophy for our contests…that robe isn’t going to display as well on the mantle.

Here’s a snapshot of the winning chili, a triple turkey concoction that I thought was pretty good but not overly exceptional. I thought it was a tad bit too bland compared to its competitors, but obviously it was that very same middle-of-the-road taste that really turned the judges on. Admittedly, whether it was really that good or winning the contest made the crowd scarf it up, I was lucky to get a half-sized portion to try before it was all gone.

Now here’s a picture of CaJohn’s chili, featuring a mixture of four kinds of meat, beans, corn, and an array of spices. I’m not sucking up to John when I say that I thought his chili was the cream of the crop. It was noteworthy in that it didn’t need any accompaniments that some of the other contestants had…it was simply great ladled right out of the crockpot. As it turned out, CaJohn missed winning the competition by a single point. Considering the competition was amongst professional chefs, I think he made a great showing. All he needs is to get a chilehead as one of the judges, and the spicier chilis will get some more love during the judging.

All the chilis were good, folks. I think next year’s competition should be sponsored by Beano, though.