A perfect pot of chili

<p>There is much more to cooking up the perfect batch of hearty, spicy, mouth-watering chili than just throwing some ground beef and chili powder together in a pot.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>As competitors at the Great Petaluma Chili Cook-Off will tell you, it takes time and a creative spirit in the kitchen to come up with an award-winning chili.</p><p>“Less is always better when you're making chili,” said Alex Tanalski, a member of the Tree Huggin' Hippie Chili team. “A lot of things find their way into the chili pot, so I think having the discipline to not put everything in is important. Making good chili is also about knowing when you think it's good, and stopping.”</p><p>The Tree Huggin' Hippie Chili team has been competing at the Great Petaluma Chili Cook-off since it began 13 years ago. The team has managed to win awards all 13 years, including first-place awards nine times.</p><p>“We've won more than 20 awards at the Petaluma cook-off,” said Tanalski. “In 2000, we swept all the awards. We've upped our recipe for this year's cook-off, and are excited.”</p><p>The team's chili recipe began formation when Tanalski and son-in-law Carlos Tovar were living in Colorado. Their exposure to Southwestern and Tex-Mex dishes provided the inspiration for experimenting with chilies and blending them to create just the flavors they loved.</p><p>“We used to make chili, and would go around to different chili cook-offs, and thought that our recipe was good,” said Tanalski. “We entered that first Petaluma cook-off and wound up winning, so we entered another one in Rohnert Park for the California State Championship and qualified for the Chili Appreciation Society International Championship in Terlingua, Texas.”</p><p>Since then, the team has gone on to international competitions and earn more awards. The team also creates and sells various chili blends online under the Tree Huggin' Hippie Chili name.</p><p>“The competitiveness of chili cook-offs and the people we meet make this fun for us,” said Tanalski. “You get to work with a lot of professional people and meet a whole other group of people who feel as passionate about chili as you do.”</p><p>Chili chefs are passionate about ingredients. There are many opinions on what should go into chili, including what kind of meat to use and whether or not to use beans.</p><p>“Everyone has got their own secret ingredient or special thing they do with their chili,” said Nicole Henry, a member of Petaluma's Trader Joe's chili team. “There's so many different varieties of chili. That's what's so neat about it.”</p><p>Trader Joe's has been participating in the Petaluma Chili Cook-Off for the past 12 years; eight of those have been with a team from the Petaluma store.</p><p>“It started off with a team from the San Rafael store,” said Henry. “We got involved when the Petaluma Trader Joe's store opened. I've been on the team for seven years.”</p><p>Crafting the perfect chili has been a learning experience for the Trader Joe's team. While the original recipe they use was crafted by the San Rafael team, Henry said over the years, they've changed it and tried various different ingredients in an effort to create their own chili masterpiece.</p><p>“One of the things I've learned about is what they call in chili making, ‘dumps.'” said Henry. “Throughout the cooking period, there are certain times when you add, or dump, spices up until the time you serve it. We also use a lot of fresh chili peppers, which we roast. We use a combination of about 10 different peppers. That gives it a lot of that deep chili flavor.”</p><p>The 13th annual Great Petaluma Chili Cook-off, Salsa and Beer Tasting takes place from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 8 at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds. Tickets are $25 for chili and salsa tasting, $10 for kids under 12 and free for kids under 5. Tickets for chili, salsa and beer tasting are $35. The proceeds benefit Cinnabar Theater's Young Rep programs.</p><p>For more information, visit www.greatchilicookoff.com or call 763-8920.</p><p>(Contact Yovanna Bieberich at yovanna.bieberich@argus courier.com)</p>