Chili Cook-Off, Barbecue Binge Spice Up Fair

For the last 11 days, Deputy Chuck Buttell has subsisted on what, for most people, is an annual treat--Ventura County Fair food.

Cholesterol-saturated, fat-laden cheeseburgers, tri-tip and bratwurst have fueled the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department veteran on a daily basis.

So when the organizer of Saturday’s barbecue contest asked Buttell if he wanted to judge the competition, it was a little like asking whether the All Alaskan Racing Pigs have a future as pork rinds.

“Hell, yes,” Buttell said. “I wonder if they will give me a doughnut to clear my palate.”

Buttell is at the fair because it’s his job to staff the Sheriff Department’s public information booth. But there are plenty of visitors who also find that the food isn’t just a part of the fair, it is the fair.

“This is the reason we come to the fair every year,” said 54-year-old Margarite McDermott of Los Angeles, with the aroma of barbecuing beef washing over her as she patiently waited at the end of a long line at Susy’s Tri-tip booth. “This is the best.”

Just ahead of her in the queue, Ventura resident Sheryl Carlson, 29, substituted strategy for experience in deciding what’s hot and what’s not.

“I figure, long line--good food,” she said.

Some businesses use a crowd as a marketing technique.

With two mini-machines capable of manufacturing a dozen piping hot doughnuts a minute behind glass screens squarely in the view of customers, Donut Express virtually guarantees itself a line of salivating doughnut die-hards.

“It’s like an exhibit,” said co-owner Sue Tjulander of Vista, whose company has been at the fair for 16 years. “We have people who walk in the gates . . . and say ‘We come just for the doughnuts.’ We have people in Ventura County who say it’s a tradition.”

It is a similar story over at the agriculture building, where Saturday meant free guacamole samples. Oxnard’s Mission Produce Co. goes through 125 pounds of avocados to meet the demand.

“I think it’s one of the best nutritious snack foods there is,” said Joseph Blum, 76, after asking for the recipe and adding with a smile, “my doctor told me it’s an aphrodisiac.”

So far, this year’s fair has seen food contests featuring everything from Spam to chocolate.

On Saturday came the crowning competition: the International Chili Society-sanctioned 17th annual chili cook-off, in which 14 teams vied for a $300 top prize and an opportunity to qualify for the semifinals of the world championships this fall in Reno.

First place was awarded to the “Double D” chili of Diane DeWitt of Goleta. Sonny Allen of Mission Hills took second for his “I Chase Chili,” and his wife Marilyn won third for her concoction--”I Chase Chili, Too.”

The People’s Choice award was presented to Vince Hoffman of Arleta for his “Beer Belly Chili.”

Most of the contestants here are part of the small competitive chili cooking subculture that makes the rounds of the scores of cook-offs held in the state annually.

There are no beans in competition chili--just meat and sauce. Overly hot chili is looked down upon by experts--anybody can make a sauce that will singe the mouth. And exotic meats like rattlesnake or venison are usually incapable of withstanding the three-hour cooking time needed for a batch to suitably simmer in the pot.

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The trick, say connoisseurs, is in the timing and the cooking, rather than in any secret ingredients.

“The chili should really affect you in three places,” said Joel Erickson of Thousand Oaks, a two-time chili cook-off winner who was celebrating his 60th birthday by judging the competition. “In your palate--it should be up front when you first taste it. The taste should stay with it as it goes through the mouth, then you should get another rush as it goes down the throat--it’s called the back or the tail.”

The chili cook-off has its devotees among more casual tasters, too, said contestant Debra Murray, 39, of Thousand Oaks.

“It’s like a reunion because we haven’t seen them in a year,” she said. “I would go to this reunion before my high school reunion, because these people know how to party.”

There are fewer spectators and contestants over at the barbecue competition, where participants must cook ribs, chicken, hamburger and beef. Still, the five competitors are an improvement over last year’s contest, when no one bothered to show up and the $700 barbecue that was the first prize went unclaimed.

These folks are novices compared to the chili cooks, but that wasn’t stopping Ventura resident Dick Nali, his wife, Martha, and 8-year-old daughter Meleah from touting the virtue of their custom barbecue sauce, which boasted the label “Nali’s North Carolina As-U-Go B-B-Q Sauce.”

“If it doesn’t taste good, we just dump in more beer,” said Martha, explaining the name.

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Buttell’s marathon food binge makes him the real expert though.

His award for best cheeseburger goes to the Job’s Daughters booth. Best overall food is a tossup between Susy’s Tri-tip and the bratwurst sold near the agriculture building, he said.

“And the cinnamon rolls are always killer,” he said, walking off in search of a sample of barbecued whatever. “When you’ve been here 11 days, you know where everything is.”

Dan Diaz of Santa Paula won first place in the rib competition, with second going to Dick Nali. Tom Coene of Ventura won third place. Diaz also took first in the chicken event. Coene placed second and Nali was third.