Signs of spring are beginning to appear: peepers peeping, salamanders migrating, fuzzy pussywillow buds popping, more days when we can choose a lighter jacket instead of a parka. Folks are looking for excuses to congregate outdoors — maybe even eat lunch on a patio. But on Saturday, March 15, there was still enough of a nip in the air under overcast skies to make a steaming bowl of chili an especially appealing option. So it was that the crowds turned out in force at the Water Street Market in New Paltz to enjoy the 16th annual visitation of the Local Ingredient Chili Challenge. As always, it was a festive and friendly occasion.
The Chili Challenge is a fundraising event for the Food Pantry at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in New Paltz. “I do it in honor of my mother, Marcella Fall, who volunteered there for many years,” explained organizer Theresa Fall. “This is their biggest lump-sum donation of the year.” With tickets for chili samples selling at $2 a taste and 12 tickets for $20, this year’s event raised $3691, plus it will be doubled by the anonymous donors, so it will total $7,382. “That’s the most amount of money we’ve ever taken in,” Fall said as she stepped up on the Antiques Barn veranda to announce the winners in six prize categories to the crowd assembled on the patio below.
Aside from the usual excitement of trying a variety of different chili formulations offered by both professionals and home chefs, there was an additional buzz of anticipation this year due to the launch of a new category — Blind Taste Champion, in which the judges don’t know whose sample is whose, nor what ingredients are in it — plus the participation of several novice entrants. “There are ten contestants, with a couple of new ones this year. We’re having the Mountain Brauhaus for the first time. I’ve been after them for a while. They’re like magic up there,” Fall told HV1 in advance of the event. “Windfall Farms — they’re new. They’re doing a vegetarian chili.”
Windfall Farms, the farm operation in Montgomery that operates the Community Market storefront adjacent to the Weedery dispensary on Water Street, went above and beyond when it came to meeting the Chili Challenge requirement of using at least five local ingredients. According to co-owner Mike Nelson, “Every vegetable in the chili came from Windfall Farms, except the beans, which we sourced from Milestone Mills — part of the Farm Hub in Hurley — and some red-hot pepper from Ram’s Valley,” based in Kingston. Two kinds of mushrooms provided the “meaty” texture in the chili: shiitake grown on the farm and maitake wild-foraged by Nelson himself. The concoction came in second place in the Most Original category.
Another crowdpleasing, mushroom-forward option was the Mountain Brauhaus’ entry. While vegetarian chili is an occasional menu item at the Brauhaus, co-owner Mark Ruoff admitted that it’s not the first sort of dish one would associate with traditional German cuisine. “The German take on chili might be more like a stew,” Ruoff said. “I suppose our goulash might be the closest thing.” Nonetheless, the entry, which featured smoked jackfruit, pulled mushrooms, parsnips and sunchokes, was a hit, taking second place in the Vegetarian category, after perennial entrant the Mudd Puddle, and first place in the Best Professional category, with the Parish in second place.
In her preview of the event, Fall also mentioned “two guys who were here before representing the Lemon Squeeze — but this year they’re here as home chefs.” Those two guys, Bryan McGrath and Craig Manning, ended up running away with nearly half the prizes in the competition. Their Bat Out of Hell Chili, with smoked duck the dominant ingredient, came in first in the People’s Choice, Home Chef and Most Original categories and second place in the Blind Taste Champion category. “Now they have to come out every year,” Fall joked as she handed McGrath and Manning one after another of the brightly painted wooden cutting boards that symbolize winning in this contest.
Additional prizewinners were Mohonk Mountain House, first place in the Blind Taste Champion award and second place in the People’s Choice category, and longtime competitors Seth and Ana Van Gaasbeek as runners-up in the Home Chef category. This year’s judges were Joan Fall, Theresa’s sister; local chef/bartender Patti Lowden, formerly of Gardiner Mercantile; and Jason Bover, moderator of the Ulster Eateries Unfiltered group on Facebook.
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