It’s a Tuft Life : Conejo Valley Days Opens With Whiskers, Chili Competitions

Shannon Cooper of Thousand Oaks stroked the faces of dozens of men Sunday afternoon, scrutinizing the strands of shaggy beards and waxed mustaches lined up before her.

The 19-year-old Moorpark College student joined five other Miss Thousand Oaks princesses in judging the Whiskeroo Contest, the precursor to Conejo Valley Days that honors those with the finest facial hair.

“It’s really hard, especially with the softest beard, because all of them are really soft,” she said moments after making her choices. “I just narrowed it down the best I could.

“A lot of them I ended up giving the same score,” she confessed.

The Whiskeroo Contest and an afternoon chili cook-off attracted thousands of people to Conejo Creek Park in Thousand Oaks on Sunday to celebrate opening day of the 38th annual Conejo Valley Days festival.

While the scent of barbecue and chili wafted through the air, dozens of men, including several who have not shaved in decades, vied for the ceremonial crowns.

“Last year, I won softest beard, so this is really great,” said Bill Reif of Newbury Park, who took top honors Sunday with the trim brown beard that was named the best of 1994.

Other winners included Brian Kock, scroungiest beard; Glenn Morrison, softest beard; Butch Shulman, fullest beard; Steve Robinson, best mustache, and Roger Meade, most unique mustache.

The chili cook-off drew almost 60 amateur chefs out of their kitchens and into homemade booths to hawk such attractions as Earthquake Chili, Cup o’ Death and Beer Tub Chili.

Many had spent hours preparing their special mixes of spices and sauce.

“There’s no big secret,” said Kenton Stafford of Fillmore, “just a whole lot of time searching for spices and powders.”

Stafford said his so-called 7/8 Chili won the world chili championship six years ago. On Sunday, he dished out hundreds of portions in small, plastic cups to a hungry crowd.

“I cooked it three hours here and I spent probably another four hours getting it ready at the house,” he said between servings.

Wind gusts of up to 25 m.p.h. did not deter Daniel Hernandez, who drove from Culver City to taste as many different kinds of chili as he could.

“We’re just working our way around,” he said, clutching almost two dozen tickets for chili samples and waiting in a long line at Axmen Chili. “I have a bad stomach, so I took a bunch of Pepto-Bismol before I came.”

Eric Armao, a painter from Newbury Park, said he was just finishing a beer when a man gave him 40 tickets for chili tastings.

“He probably got indigestion and split,” said Armao, waiting for a taste of Earthquake Chili. “I read about it in the newspaper. It’s supposed to be really good.”

Virginia Goodrich of Simi Valley said her favorite recipe came from Scent of a Chili, which she said best blended a hickory flavor and top-quality beef.

“It had black beans and thick chunks of onions,” she said. “You could actually see the ingredients.”

Stan Cowan of the Thousand Oaks Rotary Club, which sponsored the culinary contest, said more than 30,000 tickets for tastings had been sold by mid-afternoon. The money is donated to various nonprofit groups.

“We were blessed with not having any rain, which would have put the cook-off in peril,” he said. “The turnout is better than it’s ever been.”

Conejo Valley Days takes today and Tuesday off, then returns Wednesday with the Badgeroo Contest and the much-anticipated carnival. It concludes Sunday with a rodeo.

Cowan confessed that not all of the chili sold at the booths is original. Each entrant is required to bring 2 1/2 gallons of a home recipe. After that is sold, however, entrants use a canned, name-brand chili provided by the Rotary Club.

“They supplement and add to it their own personal, individual spices and perhaps a little more meat,” Cowan said, adding that the club went through more than 30 cases of canned chili Sunday.