NEWPORT BEACH : Aficionados Turn Up Heat During State Chili Cook-Off

The Newport Beach Fire Department offered “Backdraft Chili.” Costa Mesa resident Carole Arnold toiled over her specialty, “Disco Inferno Chili.”

With ingredients as imaginative as the names of their dishes, the teams were among 96 from across the state competing Thursday in the 22nd annual California State Championship Chili Cook-Off.

For four hours, the teams stirred and tasted, adjusting spices, each hoping to be chosen to attend the national cook-off in October in Reno.

The sponsoring International Chili Society defines the dish as “any kind of meat or combination of meats cooked with chili peppers.”

Canned or bottled tomatoes are allowed, but all other cooking has to be done at the competition, which was held this year at the Hyatt Newporter and drew a crowd of about 3,000.

That left plenty of latitude for concoctions such as Balboa peninsula resident Ken Caroselli’s “Rocky Mountain Roadkill Chili.”

Celebrity judge and college basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian led a panel of tasters.

Restaurant-backed entries included one from Barry Silver of the Swallows Inn in Mission Viejo and another from Scott Floyd of Newport Beach Brewing Co.

Other teams represented Orange County cities: Costa Mesa residents Norman Gaul and Mike Hulka, champions for the cities of Westminster and Irwindale, respectively; and Aliso Viejo resident Jack Fearing for the city of Tustin.