By Sara Ballenger

Photo by Sara ballenger, Town Crier

Annual contest inspires tasty culinary efforts

The students of the Los Altos High School Culinary Arts Program held their fourth annual chili cook-off Friday. Beef, chicken, pork, vegetarian and everything in between could be found in the 13 entries and 19 gallons of chili this year.

“The kids got really involved in the advertising, the PR and developing the recipe,” said culinary arts director Betty Ewing. “They were very professional and didn’t criticize each others’ work.”

The students started planning for the cook-off in March. Once the students were divided into groups, they decided on a recipe. Ewing had a large list of recipes from which the students could choose.

“We chose ones that we had done before that worked out well,” she said.

Students went to work collecting the ingredients.

Before the cook-off, students learned skills, such as how to cut and slice and how to handle different temperatures.

“One of the group’s chilis went from the stove to the fridge. They didn’t let it cool down properly,” said Janice Macdonald, “La Fiesta Los Magrugadores” team member. “Bacteria set in and they had to throw it out. Betty helped them throw something together, last minute.”

The students then collected their ingredients and started preparing the day before.

“Eighty percent of the ingredients is the same, it’s the last 20 percent that is the personality of the chili, what they add to it,” Ewing said. “It’s the theme, the presentation, the drama, whatever they put into it.”

“We added celery, cumin, Tabasco and a lot of our own stuff. Our secret ingredient was goya, which brought a lot of flavor to the meat,” Macdonald said.

“This is my favorite event all year because it’s a competition, but it’s also for the whole school,” she said.

Macdonald’s teammate Kristen Jimenez said, “We learned how to get people involved with our chili and how to sell our product.”

“La Fiesta Los Magrugadores” played merengue music, gave out Mexican candy and wore color-coordinated outfits of red and black.

“We were dancing, trying to get more people to come to our table,” Jimenez said.

Students and staff feasted while judges cast their votes, sampling from chilis like “Goodness Gracious Great Bowls of Chili,” “Icky Sticky Chili” and “Sky High Chili.”

“This is the first one I have ever participated in and it’s a lot of fun,” said Josselyn Fry of “All American Chili.”

“I like team No. 1 (La Fiesta Los Madrugadores) the best,” said Rich Fischer, superintendent of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District and chili judge. “It was lightly spiced, a meat chili with a heavy texture. It wasn’t runny and I could stick my spoon up in it. I liked that.”

Team “La Fiesta Los Magrugadores” efforts paid off, winning first place and a paid lunch for the team at Spago in Palo Alto.

Second place went to team “Homerun Chili,” winning lunch at the Los Altos Taqueria. Third place went to team “Sky High Chili,” winning lunch at McDonalds.

Cleaning up after the event was part of the process for the students.

“The best part of cleaning up is that it’s my chili, so I get to eat it,” said Fry as she put the leftovers in a bowl, smiled and took a bite.