Vegetarian Chili Takes Top Prize at Cookoff

Meatless chili beat out some beefy competitors to take the top prize at the city's annual Chili Cookoff on Sunday.

Eight contestants arrived at the Beverly Hills Farmers' Market at 6 a.m. to prepare their chili from scratch under the monitoring eyes of contest officials. Some batches came complete with their own eye-catching names.

"I call it 'Check-Your-Pants Chili' for obvious reasons," said Jeff Brynan of his hot and spicy recipe. 

Seven chili entries were made with meat (including one that used turkey), but the top prize went to the only vegetarian entry. Tanu Gupta collected a grand prize of $250 for her creation. (Click here for the recipe.)

Second place and $150 went to Brian Watson. Caroline Frost and Teresa Jones won third place and $75 for their Big Texas Red Chili.

"We let the chili slowly simmer with chunks of actual beef bone marrow and pork," said Frost. "That's why we call it 'Big Texas.' "

Recreation and Parks Commissioner Julian Gold announced the winners and presented each with an oversized check. Other judges included 2009 winner Monica Reed, Avi Ross from Team Beverly Hills and Chef Mark Fitkowski of Ruth's Chris Steak House. The judges nibbled on grapes between tasting the chili batches to cleanse their palates and soften any fiery aftertastes.

As outlined in the official chili cookoff guidelines, only amateur cooks were permitted to participate. Professional chefs and restaurateurs were welcome to enter the corn shucking contest.

Corn shucking refers to the removal of the outer covering on an ear of corn. As the judges sampled chili entries and made their decisions, Charles Metz and Elham Tashkisy were busy winning their heats in the corn shucking contest. Greta Dunlap, the market manager, awarded each winner $20 in coupons that are redeemable at any market vendor.