Five for Flamin'!

Some years ago, my bud and fellow culinary enthusiast Kent Scantland and I decided to get into one of those chili cookoffs to see how we'd fare with our recipe's against others. So, off to Winter Park we went for the annual Rocky Mountain Region Chili Cookoff. We both went in fairly confident that we'd do OK and at least not embarrass ourselves. Kent decided to compete in the green chili competition and I decided to complete in the classic red (chili con carne). We even invited a few friends over to my house a couple of weeks before the cookoff so we could practice and determine exactly what we needed to bring with us to Winter Park. The practice went well, notes were taken, lists were made and we were ready.

Well, it turned out to be a very educational experience. There were about 50 teams from all over the west including Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas and Colorado. People really get into this and take it very seriously. Most teams claimed their area by staking up a decorated Easy-Up, set up their team flag and/or banner, decorated said Easy-Up, dawned their team shirts and provided their music to their fans. Hell, all we had was a table that the event people provided us.

We learned that the time lines for doing the cooking seemed much tighter when in the competition than during the practice at my house. We also learned that having some shelter, although the weather wasn't too bad sans a bit of wind, would have been nice. But, all in all, the cooking went pretty well. The people who sampled each of our chilies seemed to like them based on very positive comments! Finally, the call to bring the chili to the judges came and we submitted our entries. We also learned that with all the cooking activities, dealing with the patrons and everything else was quite tiring!

After the awards ceremony for each chili classification were over - we got shut out - the participants could go read the judges comments on their dish. I was shocked when I read mine. I came in about 5 from the bottom with most comments saying that my chili was bland. One person even said about my chili, "not bad for prison food." I was certainly disappointed, but after talking to some event organizers and judges that all my chili probably needed was more salt.

So, Kent and I went back up to the competition the following year. I once again wanted to cook the traditional red to redeem myself. That year we were much better prepared. During that year, I purchased an Easy-Up of my own. We brought up some simple decorations for our "booth", wore some hip chili themed shirts and had Kent's kids help us run some of the patron interference for us. I even came up with a name for my chili. Being a huge hockey fan, I decided on the name, Todd's "Five for Flamin'" Red Chili, in reference to hockey's five minutes for fighting major penalty. I really didn't change my recipe or techniques at all from the previous year except for one thing. About 2 minutes before I turned in my chili to the judges, I added a ton of salt. To me, it was way too salty, but I had learned the year before that since the judges are tasting about 45 different chilies, some of which are fairly spicy, hot, if your chili doesn't have a bunch of salt, it will just taste bland.

I really didn't have any hope of winning anything, but I wanted to improve on my previous result. I was ecstatic that my name was called as a runner-up in the traditional red chili category - tied for 4th place! Not too shabby.

Two important things came out of the competitive chili cooking experience. One, I learned the chili you make at home and that everyone loves it not the same as competition chili. The second is the name I came up with for when I create tasty, fiery dishes: Five for Flamin'!

If you'd like to learn more about ICS Chili Cookoffs, go here: International Chili Society