Nine-year-old Lincoln Worth, a first-time chili maker (and first-time stove-user) walked away with the $100 grand prize at the New Ipswich Town-Wide Chili Cook Off on Saturday.
The event is the first in a series of events that will be held this year marking the town’s 275th anniversary, and proceeds from the event will go toward funding the town’s celebration in October. Entrants paid $10 to submit a chili, and residents paid $5 for the right to try all seven entries and judge their favorite.
Lincoln said he had a good feeling about his chances early in the event, as tickets, meant to indicate tasters favorite chilis, were already starting to congregate in the bowl to indicate his was the best of the lot.
“I think I’m winning,” he declared, excitedly.
Lincoln said entering the contest started as a joke, but eventually, he thought, “Why not?” He said he found his recipe online, made with the basics of onions, tomato sauce, beans and meat, with cheese and sour cream as sides.
To make a proper chili for Saturday’s competition, Lincoln said he had to get up early on Saturday – about 5 a.m. – which made him question whether it was all worth it.
“I was not in the mood,” he admitted.
But he persevered, and did almost all the prep work and cooking himself in his first attempts at cooking on a stovetop. (His mother, he admitted, chopped the onion for him, as he’s not allowed to use knives yet.)
Lincoln said he planned to use his winnings to take his friend to a viewing of “A Minecraft Movie” later that night.
Lincoln wasn’t the only competitor new to the chili scene.
“I’ve never made chili before. So good luck to everyone,” said Daniel Ziarnik-Case with a laugh.
Ziarnik-Case said he crafted his recipe by looking at several recipes online.
“I saw what was similar, and threw that together,” he said.
Ziarnik-Case admitted, rather than chili-cooking glory, he was just trying to support the town’s efforts to raise funds for its anniversary celebrations, saying, “There was going to be at least one entrant.”
Others were more experienced, including Tobias Wright, who said this wasn’t the first time his chili has been entered into competition.
His chili is a three-day slow cook, Wright said, which means that he had already begun preparing a pot the previous week, when the cook-off was delayed due to icy conditions. He said he froze his chili, and used half of it to create a fresh pot, noting, “Chili always tastes better the next day.”
Wright’s chili is made using Wagyu beef raised in Mason, and his vegetables were smoked on charcoal before being mixed into the chili.
“And no beans,” Wright said. “If it has beans, it’s not chili – it’s stew.”
Shawn Talbot, who also submitted a chili, said that when he was refining his chili for entry, he also found out that chili, as it was originally developed, had no beans and used a chili base instead of a tomato base.
“And that’s one of the things that I never cared for in chili – was beans and tomatoes,” Talbot said.
While his entry still had a tomato base, Talbot said he used fewer beans than in past chilis he has made, and used five different peppers, with cubed steak and hamburger.
Talbot said he made a chili for the originally scheduled competition, along with a fresh pot, saying that he believed his more-recent try was the better of the two.
“That was an eight, today’s was a nine,” Talbot joked.
But he said he wouldn’t be voting for his own chili as the winner.
“Mine’s not overly spicy. Today, I came in wanting a little more spice, and there’s one that fits that, and that’s the one getting my vote,” Talbot said. “They’re all pretty good. Just like there’s no bad pizza, there’s no bad chili.”
Amanda Bearse of New Ipswich submitted a chili that she has developed over the years and has become her go-to for family potluck parties. She said she mostly entered for fun, and was impressed by all the entries.
Bearse said her recipe is a good “all-round” chili, but the entries surprised her with their diversity.
“All of them are so good, but so different – it’s all down to what you like, personally,” Bearse said. “There’s sweet, there’s savory, there’s spicy – a bit of everything.”
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.