CHILI COOK-OFF HOT STUFF
Road trips to Spain and LA introduced Dougie Bell to the delights of Mexican cuisine. As the Lupe Pintos’ owner launches his annual culinary extravaganza , he tells David Pollock what constitutes the perfect chili
B ack again for its third year running (or the second, in the case of its younger Edinburgh leg), independent world food store Lupe Pintos’ Chili Cook-Off is an inspired idea. Ten bars and restaurants in the vicinity of their Glasgow and Edinburgh stores are challenged to create the perfect chilli and submit it for a day of judgment by their customers. Ten pounds gets you an entry ticket, a 50 gram tub of chili at each venue and a scorecard to officially pass your own verdict. Or, as Lupe Pintos’ owner and the Cook-Off’s organiser Dougie Bell has it, ‘it’s half a kilo of chili and a good day out’.
Inspired by a conversation with a couple of customers in which one complained that Great Western Road is a long way to come from Glasgow’s Southside and another pointed out it was hardly the Wild West, the idea for Bell’s scorecard ‘shoot-out’ was born. For those who are turned off by chilli’s popular reputation as the overdone token Mexican option on pub food menus, one of his first priorities is to make the Cook-Off about the flavour of the dish. ‘Don’t make it hot,’ is his first rule. ‘Any fool can do that. The scorecard is for taste, texture and originality, and I reckon it’s originality that most people win it on. I tend to find that anyone who makes it hot gets a low score.’ So what does make a good chili? ‘It should be very flavoursome,’ he says. ‘As with all good Mexican food, it’s down to the blending of the chillies, and balancing one, two, three or four chillies with a handful of spices. And you need a good pile of stock and good quality meat and produce too. Every year it’s becoming more of a culinary competition. To be honest, I’ve been making chilli for years but I’d be really nervous in that competition with the depth of flavour, the sweeteners and the chillies used. I could identify so many colours and textures. All I’m looking for is something a wee bit different: mince and kidney beans just won’t do it.’
28 THE LIST 19 Sep–17 Oct 2013
So how can the contestants go about making sure their chili stands out? ‘I won’t mention any names but somebody put haggis in their chilli last year and it was fantastic and original. Everybody was trying to identify a particular sweetener that somebody used, because, like all foods, it’s about the balance between sweet and sour. I got wind that it was mirin, the sweet Japanese vinegar that’s used in sushi. Another thing is the way you cook the meat, doing it in different styles. People have slow-roasted pork joints and braised beef for hours in beer or wine. There’s been a lot of really good culinary stuff done.’ Bell has been in business for more than 20 years, his inspiration coming from youthful journeys to Spain to do the Keith Floyd trail and visiting friends in Los Angeles. There, he was introduced to South American cooking, and has seen the current craze for American ‘dirty food’ like pulled pork and gourmet hot dogs evolve. ‘In the last five years I’ve noticed a massive surge in that style of food, and there are two reasons for this,’ he says. ‘Man V. Food and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: those two TV programmes that have really captured people’s imagination, as happened to me when I ate my way across the States. They’ve got people looking round more, they’re asking how to make pulled pork, they’re learning about classic combinations.
‘To put it into perspective,’ he finishes, ‘the most popular recipe I’ve ever published in a book or on my website is for Lupe Pintos’ Famous Chili Con Carne. It gets downloaded from my website 50 or 60 times a week. It’s a hard one to put to rest, and of course people who use that recipe make their own alterations to it. Anything that gets people cooking is fantastic.’
Various venues, Edinburgh, Sat 28 Sep; various venues, Glasgow, Sat 19 Oct. See chilicookoff.co.uk for more info.