Just in time to kick off the festivities of fall, Nipomo weighs in with an event sure to please locals who harbor a taste for fun dished up with a dose of spice. On Sept. 19, the Olde Towne Nipomo Association proudly presents its first-ever Chili Cook-Off, a community-wide gathering of ambitious cooks and hungry tasters.
In Olde Towne Nipomo’s Adobe Plaza, look for hot stoves, bubbling pots, and busy chefs—both professional and amateur—carefully guarding their ingredients as they prepare their secret recipes. The rules of the cook-off allow them to do prep work ahead of time, but they must package their ingredients separately and cook on site.
“The cooks can make red or green chili,” said volunteer organizer Christy Laschiver, “and they have to provide their own stoves. This is not a Chili Society-sanctioned event. We just want to make it a fun community gathering.
“Next year,” she laughed, “I’m going to send notices that I want them to do the craziest recipes they can come up with, things like buffalo, venison, rabbit. Recipes that are really different. This year, it’s pretty straight forward, because it’s the first one.”
Judges include event visitors, who can vote for their favorite batch of chili, as well as Teresa Cruise, restaurant columnist for Adobe Press, Jim Harrison, president of Nipomo Community Services District (NCSD), and Joe Cortez, candidate for San Luis Obispo County sheriff.
“Apparently they’re all chili fans,” Laschiver noted, “but if not, they will be by the time the event is over!”
Prizes will be awarded at 5:30 p.m. with the first place winner receiving a commemorative plaque. Lucky also-rans will receive a round of golf for four, gift certificates generously donated by local businesses, or bottles of Windsor Vineyards wine bearing a label crafted especially for the occasion.
To supplement the chili samples dished up by the competitors, the Olde Towne Nipomo Association will sell juicy hot dogs drenched with chili donated by Little Jocko’s. Other vendors dispensing edibles include Sisters Thai kitchen, Pi-Whole Pizza, Neeta’s Creekside Café, Velasquez Produce, La Bella Olives, California Bee Company, Healthy Palate, and Preferred Jams and Jellies.
To whet their whistles, guests can buy wine by the glass or bottle, each with a label commemorating the cookoff.
“One of our Old Towne members has been a wine club member of Windsor Vineyards, in Napa, for many years,” Laschiver explained, “and the winery offered to donate a case of Chardonnay and Merlot.”
[image-2] Beer provided by SLO Down Pub in Arroyo Grande features a Firestone Brewery offering usually available only in the pubs, and will be available by the glass.
Also on tap, local music instructor Steve Hilstein’s Drum School 101 and Music School 101 provide lively tunes to accompany tasters as they nibble, stroll, and maybe even dance a little. Budding musicians might want to check out Hilstein’s music school, located onsite in Adobe Plaza.
The Olde Towne Nipomo Chili Cook-Off is sanctioned by the Olde Towne Nipomo Association, a nonprofit, public benefit corporation whose goal is to turn a vacant piece of land adjacent to Adobe Plaza into a lush community asset called Jim Miller Park. Money raised at the cook-off will go to fund an all-wars veterans’ memorial to be installed at the park.
“The NCSD recently approved park powers,” Laschiver said, “which means we can go forward with the construction of this park. We need to raise money to build restrooms, a pole barn for events, and a gazebo for concerts.”
Laschiver warmly credits the project’s sponsors, who “have donated printing, money, and everything in between.” They include Rabobank, SLOCO Data, SLO Down Pub, Grand Awards, and Chili’s, as well as New Times and the Santa Maria Sun.
“Our sponsors have been really generous with us,” she smiles. “Souza Foods, the Spice Hunter. Nipomo Rexall is the main one—they’ve donated the most money.”
Though she has lived in Nipomo for only six years, Laschiver feels strongly about having a voice in the future of her adopted community. Active with the NCSD and Olde Towne Nipomo Association, she conceived the idea of a chili cook-off as an ideal fundraiser to jumpstart efforts to create the park.
“The structures in Jim Miller Park will be Victorian in nature,” she said, “and the park will be a very attractive place for people to come to or drive by.
“I wanted to live in a small town I love,” she added, “and I love Nipomo. I’m not against growth, but I’d like to see it done with common sense, because Nipomo can be the jewel of coastal California.”
K. Reka Badger is feeling a bit chili. E-mail comments or ideas to rekabadger@hotmail.com.
This article appears in Sep 10-17, 2009.