Bash Compactor: Chili Out

Going out in New York, there’s always a chance of stumbling on the next thriving underground scene—and with food being more obnoxiously popular than ever, it’s hard to toss a piece of salted caramel without hitting a group of fervent foodies celebrating their epicurean existences.

And so it was on Sunday at The Bell House, when passion burned in the hearts and mouths of the chefs and tasters of the annual Chili Takedown.

The room was packed with a winding line of people, plates in hand, waiting to taste and re-taste the 28 chilis entered into this year’s competition.

“This shouldn’t be happening in New York, because New York is not about chili right?” asked Matt Timms, a staple on the competitive cooking scene. “That’s ridiculous! I don’t want to hear another Texan tell me what the definition of chili is. As a starving artist in New York, chili was always this thing that always got better in the fridge. You can make coffee chili, pork chili, chili with canned peaches in it. That’s the point of this event.”

After a few minutes of waiting, I reached the competitors who, one after another, handed me a plastic cup full of their entry, along with an explanation of the their theme. There was Monte Isom’s, “Venison and double smoked bacon chili with a little bit of molasses and Belgian milk chocolate to cut the acidity and delay the kick,” and also Adrian Ashby’s Turducken chili, featuring, of course, turkey, duck and chicken.

A couple of hours in, the chili supply began to dwindle and it was time for the winners to be announced, beginning with a judges’ prize, chosen by Scott Gold, author of The Shameless Carnivore, and food blogger Cathy Erway. The prize, a cooking set, went to Clifford Endo, whose chili was probably the most unconventional of the night. Endo, originally from New Mexico, based his recipe off the remnants of a breakfast burrito, resulting in a greenish colored, potato-y chili. The name of Endo’s Chili, “Johnny Utah’s Number 7,” came from the film Point Break, a reference that didn’t go un-appreciated.

The audience prize went to Stephen Cash, whose “Deconstructed Chili Fry,” was the talk of the competition. Cash, who’d won the competition twice in the past, described his chili odyssey to me in detail: “Growing up, I had a Jamaican nanny who’d make this chili. Whenever I was at the neighbor’s houses they’d always nag me to get her to make chili. So I’d follow her around the kitchen and learn the recipe and that’s how I got into chili making. It’s been years of tweaking the recipe and trying different things. Now, I live in Chinatown and I’m surrounded by ducks hanging on the walls, and the best thing about ducks is duck fat. So I came up with the idea of doing a deconstructed chili cheese fry with smoked turkey chili, sharp cheddar from Vermont and a smoked Gouda, and potato hash fried in duck fat. Duck Fat is like crack.”

In the end, everyone’s explanation of his or her chili recipe was steeped in some kind of nostalgia. Not a single competitor was shy or unwilling to discuss his creation.

“My philosophy is, you come to my event and you remember it the same way you remember a meal your mom cooked. Plus, you get to hear a lot of brutal metal, which is great,” says Timms. “I can honestly say that everyone at this thing, leaves with a smile on their face, and their stomach full.”