"Cabo Chili," the People's Choice winner made by Thanh Tan and Joe Jaszewski
(GH: OK, this isn’t a big story, but it was a big party and too much fun not to share.)
You might argue that it was a lot of work for a few chili recipes. But Jason Crawforth says it was worth it.
Crawforth, co-owner of Pie Hole Pizza in Boise, thought he’d put together a little private chili cookoff and in exchange offer some prize money for the winning recipes. Simple enough. But Crawforth apparently doesn’t think small. With 120 guests, 23 entries, a panel of 13 judges and some serious prize money, well, it wasn’t your average chili party (at least not my average chili party).
When Crawforth realized the event was getting a bit big for his own house, his friend Dixie Grant offered her more expansive place on Quail Ridge.
“I throw a lot of parties” says Crawforth. “I like bringing together a large group of people, everyone likes to make chili and I love to eat chili and could use some recipes so . . .”
The Saturday, April 3rd event wasn’t his first food-centric get-together.
Guests dive in to 23 different chilis
“I had a soup party years ago. We had about 30 different soups and we had about 66 people there. One of the soups received 60 first place votes. It was a spicy tomato dal made by a friend of mine’s wife, an Indian couple. It was a soup recipe that was 16 generations old. When you took a bite of it, it was literally like taking a bite out of a masterpiece. It was mind-blowingly good.”
Liz Fitzgerald with her recipe
Some of the chilis at this party were also mind-blowing — but in a different, somewhat painful way.
“I was having a good time until I hit that #7 chili,” Crawforth says. “That knocked my doors off. I literally felt the heat come out of my eyes.” He gives a little sigh. “Oh, my God, what is in that chili?”
Crawforth says that contestants took the cook-off very seriously, some refining their recipe over a month of trial and error cooking before delivering their final entries.
Preliminary Judging
A panel of nine judges did a preliminary round of tastings. (Crawforth required that judges not be “related to any of the competitors, don’t have any allergies, are okay with eating spicy food and don’t think Wendy’s chili is the best thing on the planet.”) The judges based their findings on five categories: taste, texture, complexity, appearance and aroma.
Four final judges including Dave Krick (owner of Bittercreek and Red Feather), Alvin Charlton (former chef of the Arid Club), Keith Allred (Democratic gubernatorial candidate) and yours truly picked the three winning chilis.
(From Left) Final judges Alvin Charlton, Keith Allred, Dave Krick and Guy Hand (not pictured, 'cause I'm taking it))
Chris Gerono won first place and $500; Dave and Darin Kangas won second place and $300; Cindy Casey won third place and $200. A People’s Choice award went to Thanh Tan and Joe Jaszewski.
The party wasn’t all about chili, however. Jason Crawforth also collected $300 in donations for the Idaho Food Bank. He also thoughtfully donated Tums and Pepto-Bismol to his dinner guests.
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Guy Hand is a writer, public radio producer and photographer specializing in food and agriculture. |
