Chili Isn’t A Dish, It’s A Philosophy

Chili isn’t a dish, it’s a philosophy, according to Steve Temkin who bans everything from this food staple save meat and meat products, chilies or chili powder, a minimal amount of tomato and limited spices.

Temkin, who never placed lower than fifth in any chili competition during the decade he was the kind of cookoffs taking place in Nevada, California and Texas, loves to quote a Lone Star State saying: “If you know beans about chili, you know chili has no beans.”

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Coming up under the tutelage of Frank X. Tolbert, C.V. Wood and Carroll Shelby, the founding fathers of the chili cookoff, Steve knows from wence he speaks when he says chili isn’t a dish.

That established, here are his most important thoughts about what else this chilimeister knows to be true about chili:

+ Don’t waste your money on expensive meat. Prime rib will turn into mush. Chili is meant to be chewed; cowboys like their pancakes well-done. Cheap and suspicious meats were what were available on the chuck wagons and spicing it up right is what kept Cookie from being buried in a makeshift grave somewhere along the trail.

+ Chili crafting is not an exercise in how brain searingly hot you can make it. Great chili reaches the sublime edge of tongue torturing spiciness but steps back just enough so that you want the next bite, rather than you want to see dead relatives.

+ If you put beans in chili, you will go to, well you know… Steve says, “I know at least a half dozen people who will personally send you there. Same goes for macaroni or other pasta products. Feel free to serve beans or such on the side, along with chopped onions, grated cheese, crackers or chunks of spotted owl.”

+ Don’t ever say your chili is better than anyone else’s unless you can back that up, hoss. Your kale munching, kidney bean-eating friends aren’t the judge of that. Enter a sanctioned local cook off — usually an event held for charity — and prove it.

And so, as chili isn’t a dish as far as expert Steve Temkin is concerned, this so-called philosophy is a fine treat to eat. Don’t you think?

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