Surely, the question is meant to be inspirational: “Who says New York folks can’t cook chili?”
So reads the boldfaced introductory graphic at www.nyschili.com, the official Web site of The Great New York State Chili Championship.
The answer, it turns out, is “the judges.”
While I had fun last Saturday at the annual state competition, held at Otsiningo Park, it was ‘mild’-ly disappointing to discover that New York’s top three chili cooks were not New Yorkers.
Doug Johnson, of Harrisburg, Pa., took home the N.Y. state crown, beating out a group of 15 other chili connoisseurs that included his wife, Judy — who placed second. Third place went to a gentleman from Houston, Texas.
Houston, Texas?
It’s no surprise that a guy from Texas knows how to cook a good chili. In fact, 79 of the 135 CASI-sanctioned cook-offs are held in Texas, while New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona and Arkansas combine for 18.
But this is not one of those 79. Binghamton’s annual extravaganza is the only sanctioned event in New York state, and one of only a handful located on the Eastern seaboard.
According to the CASI Web site, there are no rules barring out-of-staters from competition. Officially, the top three competitors from New York — who actually finished 4-5-6 — qualify for the international competition in Terlingua, Texas, in November.
This year, Pennsylvania’s Doug Johnson will head to Terlingua as the New York state champion. (Pennsylvania, in fact, holds its own state championship: the 5th Annual Keystone State Chili Cookoff was held May 26, in York.)
It hasn’t always been this way. 1967 was the proudest year in New York state chili history, when New York’s H. Allen Smith tied Texas’s Wick Fowler for CASI’s first-ever international championship.
In 2005 and 2006, New York was represented in Terlingua by a New Yorker — Bob Griffin, the co-coordinator of this year’s event, who emceed the awards ceremony. He ominously vowed to return in 2008 to re-claim his crown.
But I also have my reservations about Griffin: he is the marketing manager of Sodexho, the company that runs the quartet of BU dining halls that have fed me — nay, provided me sustenance — since fall 2003.
Chances are, you’ve never tried dining hall chili — believe me, you’re not missing much. (The Sodexho booth did, however, win the “People’s Choice” award on Saturday, thanks to several delicious concoctions made by chef John Enright.)
As it stands now, next year’s favorites are two out-of-staters and a mess hall chef.
I won’t stand for it.
Sure, we’re New Yorkers, but we’re from the Southern Tier. (I might be pitiful in the kitchen, but as a Long Island native, I’m actually from south of this so-called Southern Tier.)
Thus, I’m announcing my intention to enter the 2008 Great New York State Chili Championship, with a goal to bring the New York state title back to New York: Who says we can’t cook chili?
I’ll spend the next 12 months in search of New York’s best meat and zestiest spices.
As for a recipe? Considering Google got me through college, I think it can provide me an adequate chili formula.
And even if we somehow lose again next year, I hereby dare any Texan to try and craft an award-winning spiedie.
Strub is a senior at Binghamton University, a part-time copy editor at the Press & Sun-Bulletin and a new resident of Binghamton’s West Side.
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