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Why do they call this stuff chili if it’s so darn hot?
By LESTER R. DAILEY
Article published on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/111005_cit-04.jpg) |
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| Photo by LESTER R. DAILEY |
| Dead Serious team from Tampa takes home second place in the booth decoration contest for their display featuring numerous trophies for best booth design, as well as a coffin and other spooky stuff. |
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![[Image]](/content_images/111005_cit-04-a.jpg) |
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| Photo by LESTER R. DAILEY |
| Clearwater was represented by Uncle Billy’s Downwind Chili at the cookoff. |
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CLEARWATER – About 40 chefs sliced, diced, simmered and stirred in Coachman Park Saturday, hoping to become Florida state champion in one of three chili categories: red chili, chili verde or salsa.
Some even dreamt of achieving the Holy Grail of chili chefs, the coveted Hat Trick Winner title for sweeping all three categories.
The winners will go to the world championships of the 3,000-member International Chili Society, which happened in Omaha last year and will probably go there again this year.
“It’s a very friendly town,” explained event organizer and two-time Florida champ Doug Roy. “And it’s the corporate headquarters of ConAgra Foods, which makes a lot of the ingredients chili cooks use.”
Most of the chefs are amateurs who prepare their chili on Coleman propane camp stoves and pay $30 to enter the popular red chili category, $20 for chili verde, $10 for salsa or $50 to compete in all three categories.
“Hardly any of them own restaurants,” Roy said. “This is just what they like to do.”
But Roy was a little hazy on the history of chili.
“As far as I know, chili originated in Texas,” he said.
“There’s a lot of Mexican influence, but I’m sure Texas will take credit for it.”
The formidable Dead Serious team from Tampa arrived early and displayed its numerous trophies for best booth design, as well as a coffin and other spooky stuff.
“Here lies Uncle Willie!” read a grave marker outside their booth, which won second place in this year’s booth decoration contest. “He ate our chili. He won’t again, will he?”
But the team’s secret weapon, last year’s Florida champ Ed Smith, was absent because of a death in his family, giving the other teams a better chance.
“I could tell you but I’d have to kill you,” Ken “The Embalmer” Burke of Dead Serious replied when asked the secret of making good chili.
But he quickly relented.
“The secret is to keep your recipe simple and not overcomplicate it by putting in things that don’t need to be there. Don’t overextend yourself,” he said.
“I haven’t figured it out,” Tony Hamas of the Texas-themed Big Red’s Cayenne Rouge team from Lutz answered when asked the same question. “I haven’t won yet.”
“Patience is the key to good chili,” said Gail Gilchrist of Uncle Sal’s Chili Mob from Mims. “Cook it low and slow.”
But other contestants said the ingredients are the key.
“That’s our secret ingredient,” Kevin Shields of Clearwater’s own Uncle Billy’s Downwind Chili said, pointing to a bottle of loperamide hydrochloride anti-diarrhea medicine.
And he may not be kidding.
“We stand behind our chili,” the team’s motto declares. “But you don’t want to stand behind us.”
The Thunder and Mud team from Gainesville emphasized the hotness of their chili by having two jack-o’-lanterns on the counter. When a mixture of boiling water and ice was poured into them, “smoke” appeared to belch from their mouths. It was enough to win the award for this year’s best decorated booth.
In the end, Marilyn Frederick of Time Bomb Chili won first place in both the traditional red chili category and the newer salsa category. But Bob Hall of Chef-Boy-R-Bob Chili kept her from becoming a Hat Trick Winner by taking first place in the chili verde category.
Ken Burke of Dead Serious took second place, and his teammate Bruce Gaylor took third place, in the red chili category.
Jerry Simmons of Chili by Jerry took second place in the chili verde category, and Randy Gilchrist of Uncle Sal’s Chili Mob took second place in the salsa category. Steve Tomasek of Croatian Chili placed third in both the chili verde and salsa categories.
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Article published on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005
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