Columbus, Ohio USA
Return to homepage www.shortnorth.com
Behind the Chef Chili Challenge
February 2008
by Mary Martineau
email mmartineau@northmarket.com
Return to Martineau Index
Return to Features Index
For the past couple years, one of the more entertaining and certainly taste-bud inspiring facets of the North Market’s Fiery Foods Festival has been the Chef Chili Challenge. Chefs from inimitable local restaurants such as Alana’s, Basi Italia, Burgundy Room and Creole Kitchen have engaged in crock-pot to crock-pot combat. Each year returning chefs formulate a new meaty concoction to impress the judges in the hopes of winning the glorious title “North Market Chili Champ.” Or, perhaps it is the $200 in North Market gift certificates and whatever amusing “trophy” we’ve devised for the year that spurs them on to chili recipe contemplation.
John Skaggs shows off his "trophy" as the reigning
North Market Chili Champ.
I checked in with a couple of returning chefs to gauge their temperature for the competition and see what brings them back to the North Market. John Skaggs is currently a chef at L’Antibes and the defending North Market Chili Champ of 2007. John Dornback, chef/owner of Basi Italia, is returning for his third competition.MM: Why do you participate in the Chef Chili Challenge?
JS: My blood has a scoville measure of 577,000! Uh, and you asked me to do it two years ago, and I’ve been having fun ever since!
JD: It gives me a chance to see other chefs, network, hang out with my peers outside of the restaurant and it’s just fun!MM: What are your sources of inspiration for your chili recipe?
JS: Charles Fletcher Lummis and the rediscovery of the Southwest. (For amusement visit www.charleslummis.com*) If I told you any more, I would have to k--- well, you know how that goes…
JD: Whatever we are focusing on in season at the restaurant, what’s “en vogue” in the culinary world at the time and what I can get my hands on.*Excerpt from www.charleslummis.com: “In 1884, he walked from Ohio to California in a pair of knickerbockers and street shoes to take a job as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He gained a national following with weekly letters about his escapades along the way. A New England Yankee by birth, he gained a deep appreciation for both the natural beauty and cultural diversity of the Southwest, where he remained for the rest of his life.”
John Dornback demonstrates his chili mixing skills in 2007 MM: Do you change your chili recipe completely every year?
JS: Yes
JD: Oh yeah.MM: Do you make it up as you go along?
JS: Absolutely.
JD: Yes, that’s a lot of the fun…it’s probably also why I never win. Because I am doing something left of center that makes sense to me but might not make sense to anybody else.MM: What does the North Market mean to you and the City of Columbus?
JS: The market was the first public space I went to by myself when I arrived in 1995. It is better every time I enter the space. I feel it is a microcosm of our country. The North Market is the world at my fingertips.
JD: I believe that it makes up the fabric of the neighborhood. It’s a big part of our personal lives as my wife and I have our weekly date there every Saturday morning. And it’s really nice that you can go there and see a lot of other people you know or just kind of be anonymous.MM: As a previous winner of multiple North Market cooking contests, do you keep your trophies?
JS: Always…they are ready to show off awards and attention I have received here. I have an “I love me” wall (which if you know John Skaggs is pure satire). The prizes are eclipsed by my stack of purchase cards (issued to chefs participating in cooking contests or performing cooking demonstrations for acquiring ingredients from Market merchants).MM: How competitive is the Chili Challenge?
JD: I think there’s a certain amount of competition. Everyone wants to win and do something different. Everyone takes it as serious as they can when taking a day off and knocking around with some colleagues. We have some fun with it. Chefs are a pretty secluded bunch so it gives us the opportunity to get out and let our hair down.Mary Martineau is Marketing Director at the North Market.
North Market Fiery Foods Festival, Saturday, February 16, 2008, Free Admission
Festival Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. • CHEF CHILI CHALLENGE 11 a.m. • CUSTOMER CHILI COOK-OFF Noon
A tasting fee of $5 enables onlookers to sample all of the chilis
by both professional chefs and amateur contestants while supplies last.Visit www.northmarket.com Call 614-463-9664
©2008 Short North Gazette, Columbus, Ohio. All rights reserved.
Return to homepage www.shortnorth.com
