Katonah Chili Cook-off returns for 17th year

By AMY SOWDER

The chilis sat brooding in their slow cookers, dark and smoky and chunky. A bluegrass band plucked a banjo and sawed away on a fiddle. The line of people snaked out the door, each carrying a large wooden tray held out like an offering.

And one man walked away with a trophy he threatened to wear on a thick gold chain.

The 17th annual Katonah Chamber of Commerce Chili Cook-off took over the Bedford Hills Community House on April 17, drawing a sold-out crowd of 220 for an afternoon of fire-roasted peppers, bone broth birria, and some very serious trophy hardware.

Twelve chili chefs — home cooks, local restaurant chefs and enthusiastic business leaders who just love chili — competed for five coveted awards, two of which were handed out for the very first time.

Captain Cooks Food, run by catering chef Chris Busone, took home both the Best Presentation award and the People’s Choice Golden Ladle — the event’s top prize. Judges Choice went to Alexa Fitzgerald of Br’ers BBQ, who won the top award back in 2015, when she beat out a certain Katonah resident named Martha Stewart. The newly introduced Chamber Award went to Daniel Raiffe of Bark and Brine BBQ. Taconah Cantina’s David Chiong was named People’s Choice Runner-Up.

“You chili chefs really killed it,” Eileen Sullivan, executive director of the Katonah Chamber of Commerce said before the crowd as she revealed the winners. “This was so close you wouldn’t even believe it.”

Chamber organizers tweaked some parts of the competition while keeping what worked well last year.

The cook-off was previously held at the Harvey School, but a scheduling conflict pushed it to Bedford Hills Community House two years ago. 

“We loved it so much last year we duplicated so much,” Sullivan said, including a tent outside for extra seating in case of rain. Too Blue, the bluegrass band that played last year’s event, returned as well. “It’s like the perfect music for this,” Sullivan said.

This year’s guest judge lineup included Jesse Mayhew, co-owner of LMNOP Bakery; Katonah Fire Department Chief John Whalen; Kweon Stambaugh, assistant principal of Katonah Elementary School; and actor Michael Chernus, known for his work in “Severance,” “Orange is the New Black” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” among other projects. Chernus, who lives in North Salem, took the judging assignment seriously. Very seriously, he said in a deadpan tone.

“We’ve been training for about a year, the four of us together,” Chernus said as he gestured to his chili seat mates, “spice training our tongue. And we have a fire chief in our midst.” 

He was kidding. Mostly. Turning sincere, Chernus said the chili cook-off is a “good kickoff for spring as we’re all thawing out from that crazy winter,” he said. 

Whalen, for his part, admitted he’s been banned from making chili at home.

“Over-spicing,” he said, grinning sheepishly at his wife.

The chilis themselves covered serious ground. Raiffe’s Bark and Brine entry leaned into chuck and charred poblanos. Sam Eckstein brought Mexican-style birria from Springbone Kitchen, his New York City restaurants, topping it with the bone broth his brand is known for. 

“We are bone broth specialists,” Eckstein said. 

Mason’s Finest entered a well-balanced chili from Mike and Mason Peck. Competitors also included the Blazer Pub, Wogies, Coldwell Banker Realty, Chroma Fine Art Gallery, The Recorder and the Katonah Bedford Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps, whose team made sure everyone survived the spice.

Fitzgerald’s winning Judges Choice entry was a departure from anything she’d made before. “I came up with a new chili, a signature pulled pork verde with tomatillos, poblanos, jalapeños and a lot of herbs,” she said. It was bright, herby, and nothing like the dark, smoky entries around it, which may have been exactly the point.

And then there was Busone’s chili.

“Now I know all it takes is 16 hours over three days to have a chance,” Busone said with a laugh.

He started by toasting and rehydrating ancho and guajillo chilis, then blended them with onion, garlic, chipotle peppers, brewed espresso and tomato paste, pushed the whole thing through a fine mesh strainer, and cooked it down in a pot where he shaved in dark chocolate. That deeply layered paste became the base for his smokehouse short rib chili. Rich, smoky, complex — the kind of thing that makes you wonder why you’ve been making chili any other way.

Except for all that time and effort.

“I haven’t gotten trophies like this since I was nine, and I am genuinely happy,” Busone said, waving around the ladle, testing how it would look as a necklace on his chest. “People think I’m gonna put this on my mantle. No. I’m gonna cook with this.”

Proceeds from the cook-off go toward chamber initiatives throughout the year, including the Music in the Gazebo series running May through October, the Katonah Art Walks, the sidewalk sale, student scholarships and general administrative costs, Sullivan said.

The event is the chamber’s major annual fundraiser, and Sullivan said the community turnout is what keeps it going. Tickets sold out a couple days before the event. “It’s the community aspect of this that we really thrive in,” Sullivan said. “Everyone pitches in. This is peak community.”