Chili Cook Off serves political indigestion Chili Cook Off serves political indigestion (July 18, 2001)

Purists say city's definition of chili doesn't add up to beans

by Daryl Savage

Craig Barney is in a stew over the Palo Alto Chili Cook-Off.

The 20th year of the annual event, held July 4 at Mitchell Park was a disappointment for Barney. It's not that Barney and his chili cooking team, "Lounge Lizards," missed out on first place for the ninth year in a row; it's one particular ingredient that is making him simmer.

"Beans have no place in chili," Barney said. The old rules for the cook-off stated that chili should not have any beans, he said. "Now they've modified the rules to allow beans and that's just not real chili."

The International Chili Society and the Chili Appreciation Society International both agree with Barney. Chili should have only meat, spices and tomatoes, according to their Web sites.

Other chili purists were so upset about the addition of beans that they stopped participating in the cook-off, Barney said.

Palo Alto's Special Events Coordinator Shia Germinder has heard about the bean dispute.

"I know that beans are not normally sanctioned in these kinds of competitions," he said. Germinder has been with the city for three years and the bean decision was made a year or two before he was hired. He speculated the addition of beans helps give variety to some of the chili recipes.

"It especially helps out those who make the vegetarian chili," he said.

The official "Chili Team Rules" from this year's Palo Alto Summer Festival & Chili Cook-Off states in its number-one rule, "Chili is defined as any kind of meat, or combination of meats, cooked with chili peppers, various spices, and other ingredients. This competition allows beans in recipes."

It's that last sentence that has made Barney boiling mad. He theorizes the addition of beans makes the chili cheaper to prepare. Since some participants spend hundreds of dollars for ingredients, he said, it makes it easier for contestants to make large batches.

"They recently increased the batch size to eight gallons. Now, that's a lot of chili," Barney said.

Other rules for the cook-off are specific and precise, indicating the seriousness of the competition. For example, Rule No. 3 says, "No ingredient may be pre-cooked or treated in any way prior to the preparation period, which begins at 9 a.m. . . "

Rule No. 4: "The cooking period will be a minimum of 3 1/2 hours, and a maximum of 4 hours. And rules Nos.10 and 11 put limits on the number of cooks to three and the number of assistants to 20 for each team.

None of this brewing controversy seemed to faze this year's overall winner of the Chili Cook-Off.

The Palo Alto Park Rangers at Foothills Park were given the top honors, the first time they've won the award since entering the contest three years ago.

"We couldn't believe it," said Lester Hodgins, one of the four chefs/rangers who were part of the triumphant team. Senior Ranger Hodgins would not divulge the winning recipe. "I can only tell you that it was a very meaty chili and that there were 29 different ingredients," he said.

The price of the ingredients topped $300 and made about 12 to 15 gallons of chili. "The pot we used was two feet in diameter and came up to our waists," Hodgins said.

Head Chef Ranger Curt Dunn not only put beans in his chili, "we used four different types of beans: pinto, black, red and pink. "I've heard about the bean problem. But I grew up on chili with beans. It isn't chili if it doesn't have beans in it," he said.

E-mail Daryl Savage at dsavage@paweekly.com