Click Click: 2009 DC101 Chili Cookoff
A man cannot live on indie rock alone. So it's with great pleasure that I look forward each year to the DC101 Chili Cookoff. It's the unofficial start of summer and the kick off to the concert festival season. Yes, the lineup doesn't exactly skew to what I imagine is on a typical DCist reader's iPod, but the vibe at the show is always second to none; great food, copious amounts of alcohol, rowdy fans and crowd surfing galore. Much better than going to a show and standing there with your hands in your pockets the whole time, right? Plus, it's all for a good cause, with proceeds supporting the National Kidney Foundation. According to the NKF, last year’s Cook-Off raised over $1 million dollars for the foundation.
This year's event was moved from the cozy confines of the downtown convention center parking lot to the expansive Lot 8 at RFK Stadium. The new venue allowed for many more people than in the past. The 35,000 people that braved the heat and rain on Saturday were almost double the 20,000 capacity at the old venue. RFK provides a considerable increase in space for the show, allowing for more vendors and giving the chili cookoff participants their own section of the parking lot.
There are still a few kinks that need to be worked out. The traffic backup around 2 p.m. was ridiculous, and police directing traffic were few and far between. Confusing signage at the ticket booths also frustrated concert goers. The trailer where I picked up my media pass was emblazoned with two large Will Call signs, but the trailer only had media ticket and credentials, not regular tickets. One of the workers in the trailer spent all of her time directing people to the actual Will Call trailer. Not exactly ideal.
As for the music, Puddle of Mudd played what I assume was the same set they've been playing since 2001. Papa Roach's set sounded like what you might hear if you left a modern rock radio station on in the background for a few hours -- but their eyeliner was impressive. Shinedown was very growly and had the most elaborate outfits of the day. Third Eye Blind, the only pop leaning outfit on the bill, had their set cut short by a 30 minute rain delay, forcing them to mark off a few old favorites ("Losing A Whole Year" and "Never Let You Go" among others) from their set list. Nevertheless, they still got a wet audience to crowd surf like their was no tomorrow. Stephen Jenkins and Co. have their moments, but they are a hard band to like. It's like a great pop band fronted by your least favorite Duke basketball player ever.
But you can count Chris Cooley among their fans. He went out of his way to show his love of the band by making a homemade, handmarkered shirt that said "Third Eye Blind is awesome." Cooley was among the celebrity judges and local bloggers who helped pick winners in the chili cookoff portion of the event, along with fellow Redskin Reed Doughty, former America's Next Top Model contestant Sara Albert, Washingtonian's Catherine Andrews, and DCist's own Kriston Capps and Andrew Chriss.
Andrew Chriss judged the preliminary round of the Freestyle competition, which didn't require adherence to the International Chili Society guidelines for red or green chili. There were 61 entrants in the Freestyle category, and each judge was assigned to a table to taste 20 of the entries. There were some extreme highlights (the first place entry had a smoky pork flavor -- bacon FTW every time) and some pretty bad missteps (green chili with rubbery chicken, a lamb entry, and one entry that either had way too much liquid smoke or every ingredient in there was burned).
Kriston Capps was among the judges for the red selections, for which contestants adhered to International Chili Society standards—no beans, the way God intended. However, strict ICS rules don't prevent some chefs from submitting spaghetti sauce. Two chilis featured far too much tomato tang and bell pepper to be taken seriously. The other drastic disasters showed separation or preparation mistakes. One chili looked like ground beef swimming in oil, whereas a few chilis lacked the right amount of masa harina for thickening. Two chilis worked well overall, featuring varied textures and an interesting profile of high-and-bright peppers like serrano and low-bass peppers like chipotle.
Outside the judge's tent, among the people, lawlessness abounds: There were enough beans and corn to merit renaming the event the DC101 Meat Stew Cookoff. The best chili from the fairgrounds was a Redskins "burgundy" chili—smoky with deliberate heat. The alternative "gold" chili on offer, however, might be considered something like a war crimes violation under the International Chili Society standards.
Andrew Chriss and Kriston Capps contributed to this story