Over the past week in Mr. Brett’s foods class, each group planned, selected, and cooked their own unique chilies! In the end, judges would taste and determine the victors of the Great Chilli Cook-Off.

     On day 1, each group decided what kind of recipe they wanted to cook, then put it into the Blank Recipe Template and printed it out. The recipe had to be converted into metrics and adjusted to be in-between 4-6 servings. Our group chose to use a Hawaiian Chilli recipe and a standard Beef And Bean chili combined together. The thought process behind it was that we wanted to do a more unusual chili that the typical person wouldn’t try, and mixed it with some classic beef and chili just for some of the ‘original chili taste’. So our chili’s main ingredients consist of pineapple chunks, kidney beans, jalapeño pepper, ground beef, coffee, and olives. I was the one who came up to use olives because I thought you put olives in chili, but it turns out you don’t. At first, we hesitated to add in the olives because usually, olives aren’t a typical ingredient to make chili, but it turns out the judges loved them and found them very interesting!

     On day 2, we first watched Mr. Brett demo the cheese braid that will go alongside out chili once we serve it on day 4. After the demo, we started prepping our ingredients and just plan what we are naming the chili and the overall presentation of it. 

     Day 3 was a cooking day. We gathered all of our prepped ingredients and started making the chili. The procedure of making the chili wasn’t really hard, you just needed to put all your chili ingredients in a big pot, and then basically heat it up. We did have to put the ground beef, onion, and the jalapeño pepper on a saucepan to cook it out first though for obvious reasons. The only ingredient we didn’t add in the chili yet was the cilantro because it would make the chili bitter overnight. The chili was on the stove for how long the class was: (9-10:10) since we couldn’t cook it for 6 hours like the usual chili time. In the last few minutes of class, we poured the chili into two big glass bowls and let it cool, then we stored them into the freezer for day 4. 

     Day 4 was the final day, and also the day when the judges will determine who would win the chili competition. We took our chili out of the fridge and immediately started to heat it up. A misunderstanding occurred and group 5 labeled theirs as group 6 so then I took one of our chilis and one of theirs. I was suspicious at first as to why two of the chilis look a little different from each other, but I didn’t think too much of it because I thought we were the only group that had pineapple in ours. Turns our group 5 also put pineapple in theirs. But there was nothing that we could do because we already mixed ours together so our chilis are basically the same thing now. While the chili was heating up, we started making the cheese braid and waited for the judges to arrive. I would say for the overall preparation, to cooking the chili, we distributed our jobs and what we need to do pretty evenly.

     Once the judges are already sitting at their table, and everybody had fixed up their chillis and put in the final garnish details, it was time for them to judge each group based on their chillis. Our group was second so after the first group went up, it was our turn. We didn’t really prepare what to say about our chilis so we just winged it, it was a good thing the judges asked us a few questions because we would’ve not known what else to talk about. After the judges have tried all the chilis of every group, it was time for them to elect 1 group as winners of The Great Chili Competition. After the long and anxiety-filled stalling, the judges finally pronounced the winning group… It was us! We were so proud and confused because group 5 technically has the same flavored chili as us, but we still managed to win. It felt really cool knowing that the judges really enjoyed our crazy Hawaiian Chili, and it was an overall really fun and enjoyable experience!