January 25, 2006
Heat is on chefs at Downtown Chili Cook-off
800 chili consumers savor 15 different recipes at 12th annual event at Park Place Dome in Traverse City
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Enthusiasm ran high among patrons of the 12th Annual Downtown Chili Cook-Off as they sampled and savored 15 different chilies.
"The more the merrier," said Jen Hutchinson of the bouquet of styles, flavors and philosophies of the chilies up for grabs at the Park Place Dome Saturday.
A devoted fan of the annual cook-off, Hutchinson stops by every year and usually brings others in tow. This year, she and some friends from California were stoking up on hearty chili before heading off on a wine tour.
"There couldn't be a better way to try it out, a better representation of the talent here," she noted of the chili culinary feast.
More than 800 people noshed on the offerings brought by ten area restaurants and voted for the best in eight different categories: No Bean, White, 1-, 2- and 3-Alarm, Ethnic, Seafood and Vegetarian. The hotly contested People's Choice again went to the White Chili brought by Minervas, which also won in that category.
Besides Minervas, participants included American Spoon Foods, Freshwater Lodge, J&S Hamburg, North Peak Brewing Company, Schelde's Grille & Spirits, Scott's Harbor Grill, TBA Career Tech Center, Travino Wine & Grille and Union Street Station.
Restaurants pull out all stops to create masterpieces every year and sometimes the garnishes are as creative as the chili. Freshwater Lodge put a dab of cheddar-jalapeno polenta underneath each scoop of their 3-Alarm chili while they topped their Arapaho venison chili with guacamole sour cream and a chili tortilla. Some restaurants offered standard garnishes of sliced onions, cheese, sour cream or peppers to patrons while others believed in chili straight-up, no fancy stuff needed.
"Condiments improve it to a lot of people, they like to dress up their chili," said Sharon Parrish, kitchen supervisor at Shelde's Grill & Spirits, who made 22 gallons of the restaurant's winning 2-Alarm chili.
The Freshwater Lodge walked away with the first-place award for their eye-watering 3-Alarm entry, but they had also hoped to score in the Ethnic category. For the second year, however, Travino won the honors in that typically creative class.
"We're really after the bragging rights and our main competitor is Travino in the Ethnic category," said Mindy Schuehrer, service manager for the lodge, noting they restaurant brought 25 gallons of each for the day. "They are defending their title and they brought the same Spanish chili as last year - it's awesome."
With their Cherry Peach Pumpkin Chili, American Spoon Foods was an unusual chili in search of a competitive home (Most Fruit? Best Use of a Gourd?) Pete Schmitz, owner of the store, freely gave away the recipe - saying it was not a "deep, dark secret" - to promote the store's popular Pumpkin Chipotle Roasting Sauce and Cherry Peach salsa.
In the past two years of participating in the Chili Cook-Off, Schmitz has won some devoted fans who relish the exotic flavor.
"It is very creative and very different from any other kind of chili," said Bob Heflin of Williamsburg. "We voted for them last year and probably will again this year. We gave their pumpkin sauce away as Christmas presents, we really like it."
Ten students from the TBA Career Tech Center rotated shifts of serving their award-winning vegetarian chili with tasting the other entries at the cook-off. Sherry Schneider a senior in the program, said her sampler of chilies would be her only meal that day so she made the most of it.
"I go by the taste, usually the hotter the better," Schneider said. "Sometimes, depending on the chili, the milder the better."
Chef instructor Karl Malin has brought chili and a contingent of students to the event for the past two years. In addition to making the chili and serving it, an important part of the experience for these students is sampling other entries and making contacts with area food service professionals.
"They get a chance to see a commercial kitchen here," said Malin of the Park Place. "And they can network, hopefully that will lead to some job contacts."