HOT FLASHES

BIG LAKE — At the fifth annual Fall Festival and Chili Cookoff Saturday afternoon, more than a dozen recipes bubbled in crock pots as chefs spooned servings to hungry — and some brave — tasters.

While there were plenty of beans, meat and hot chilies to go around, at least at the winner’s table there weren’t many recipes that impressed.

“Umm, no,” Gerard Billinger said with a laugh when asked if he had any secrets to share.

Billinger’s spicy concoction did impress, however, as he walked off with the first-place prize for no-bean chili and the People’s Choice award.

“I feel great,” Billinger said. “I didn’t expect to win it all.”

Though Billinger has won the no-bean competition three years running, he didn’t exactly have stiff competition this go-round. His was the only entry in that category.

“I guess no one wants to enter,” he said, joking that he’d scared off the competition.

Gauging by comments as the judges tasted his entry, judge Mick Hug, chef at Mixx Grill in Anchorage, and the panel was impressed with Billinger’s effort. His chili was Hug’s favorite of all the categories.

“What I look for is something different,” Hug said about judging the contest. “Chili doesn’t necessarily mean beans and tomatoes.”

On the “everything goes” side, “Willow Billy” chili took top honors. Its creator, Jayson McKeel, said his recipe was one he’s used before and was tweaked for the competition. McKeel said he was thrilled, if surprised, to take home the prize.

“There’s 20 entries, or 22, I didn’t think I’d win,” McKeel said.

Second place behind McKeel was Margaret Billinger and third went to Joe Kiehl.

One entry that didn’t place in the top three probably had more than enough history to make up for it. The entry came from Gena Weinberger-Caruthers, whose husband, Sherman Weinberger-Caruthers, told the story as he spooned out servings.

Named “Grandpa Leonard’s Downtown Chili,” he said the recipe was basically reverse-engineered from one his grandfather used to make. His grandpa owned a restaurant called The Milkie Way in downtown Anchorage.

“Every morning he’d get up and make that chili,” he said. “I had to make it just because I’ve been dying for it.”

The restaurant shut down in 1978 or 1979, he said. Recently, family members got together and through memories and taste tests started the process of resurrecting the recipe. But his wife’s culinary skills were what finally brought the chili from an almost-forgotten memory into hot, steaming reality.

“She’s the genius that put it together,” Sherman Weinberger-Caruthers said.

Next to Grandpa Leonard’s chili was an entry from Walt Henry, which he called “Mole Frijole.”

Unlike Billinger, Henry was forthcoming with his recipe. He had copies of it sitting next to his crock pot. Those familiar with the word “mole” might not have been surprised to read the list of ingredients and find dark chocolate among them. Henry explained that mole recipes generally include dark chocolate.

For his part, Hug said there’s also usually dried fruit.

Henry said he’s made moles before, but this time around his recipe was more improvisational than before. Someone asked him to enter the competition the week before.

“[I] saw what I had in the kitchen, saw what [Steve’s] Food Boy had,” and tossed it together, Henry said.

Prior to the judging, Billinger said he’d likely try for a statewide title if the professional chefs judging this year’s competition — Hug and chef Al Levinsohn of the Knicaid Grill and host of Channel 2’s “What’s Cooking?” segments — liked his chili. Hug and Levinsohn were joined on the panel of judges by weather forecaster Jackie Purcell and a fourth judge, Danny Pearson.

Having achieved his goal, Billinger said he plans to continue in competition, where his recipe can be judged against others and prove it not only is in a class of its own, it can stand on its own as well.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.