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This doesn't qualify as full-blown suck, because of the circumstances surrounding it, but there's suck to be seen, no question.
A bit of backstory: My mother is a chili cook. She goes to ICS chili cookoffs fairly regularly throughout the year, and ends up going to the ICS world championship every year. Her husband has actually won the ICS championship with a batch of chili he screwed up on. She's been cooking long enough that she now runs several cookoffs (Note that this is an important detail).
I'm not much of a cook, myself. I can handle myself OK, but chili isn't something I go for - when I was a child, it made me throw up, so I've never really gotten to the point of adding it to my list of foods I like to eat.
Mom invited me along to some cookoffs a few years back for the company and my general carrying capacity (Hyaa, mule!). After a few cookoffs, she asked if we (Andara and I) would like to help judge the chili. At first, I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the idea, but I figured, what the hell - I practically have a cast-iron stomach these days, so I may as well give it a try.
I turn out to be a pretty good judge, partly because I'm not a chilihead, and I don't have any preconceived notions about what the chili should be like. There are some judging guidelines, but that's all they are - guidelines. I'm invited to come judge any time I'm available.
Fast forward to last year. Mom had a cookoff that she was running. One of my cousins was cooking in the cookoff, and I helped out with menial tasks, mostly setting up, lifting, carrying, and serving her People's Choice chili to passersby. I do some judging, and when the day ends, my cousin has won People's Choice for the day. It's not a small prize (it's actually more cash than the official competition!).
Any chili left over from judging the competition chili is still on the tables. The original cooks are encouraged to take theirs home, but few of them ever do. Once it's clear that the cooks aren't clearing their cups, anyone can take the rest of the chili. Mom suggests that I take whatever I can, and use it as a base for People's Choice chili. I spend the next hour filling quart-sized bags with competition chili, both red and green, and putting them in an ice chest.
The next day, we set up, and I start making People's Choice with the chili that was taken the previous day. I add beans to it (Competition chili can't have beans, pasta, or any other filler; People's Choice must have beans), and keep stirring it regularly. Whenever it runs low, I add more chili from a random bag. I keep up a constant line of patter for the customers, and generally use what salesmanship I have.
At the end of the day, my cousin wins the Red chili top prize, and there's some muttering in the crowd. I win People's Choice, and the announcement is met with silence. I walk up, claim my prize, and walk back into the crowd. Although the lack of crowd reaction felt a little odd, I didn't really think too much of it - I had money! I gave a good chunk of the winnings to my cousin (I was using her stove, pots, and propane), and that should have been the end of that.
We're having dinner that night, and I overhear cooks at nearby tables bitching about it. The phrases, "He's not a cook," and, "it must have been rigged - he's HER son," float through the air. The fact that my cousin won People's Choice one day and the main event the next day adds fuel to it, but I seem to be the main target of bitching. One of the more reasonable cooks comes over and discusses the matter with Mom, who sets things straight for them.
Now, there are a few things to remember here:
* This is People's Choice chili that we're talking about. The winner is determined by votes of random passersby who have paid $1 for the privilege of wandering around the cookoff with a cup and spoon, sampling chili from anyone who has a People's Choice pot.
* The chili that I used was freely available to any chili cook who wanted it, and it's a widely held opinion among cooks that the truly best chili is a blend of the top chilis at a competition. Mom suggested that I let anyone who wanted chili from the judging tables have first pick over me - I wasn't cherry-picking, I was sweeping the leftovers.
* We had a good location - we were right across from the ticket booth.
Okay, that's the suckiness. There are a few mitigating factors. My mom was in charge of the cookoff, my aunt (not my cousin's mom) was in charge of the People's Choice ballots (both handing them out and counting them), and my cousin and I were big winners for the weekend. Furthermore, I'm not a registered ICS cook, which means that I can'tcook win in Competition Red, Green, or Salsa (Non-ICS judges can turn in cups, but can't be awarded the right to go to the World Championship unless they pay their ICS dues immediately, on the spot).
There have been problems at other cookoffs in the past where, despite the double-blind method of judging that should prevent cheating, the judges have played favorites, and fudged the numbers to make someone who "shouldn't" win lose to someone who actually didn't win. That's been exposed and dealt with, but the stigma does still remain.
From the outside, that can clearly look like there was nepotism going on. However, my aunt is as anal and by-the-book as they come - she was an accountant before becoming a Contracts Administrator (She has finished law school, but hasn't passed the Bar). She wouldn't cheat for her own son, much less me. Likewise, my mom is a real straight arrow, and anyone who knows her should know this. She doesn't go out of her way to insult people, but when people drop a problem in her lap (part of her job as a Family Law attorney, now retired), she tells them what they need to do to fix the problem, period. She doesn't try to come up with the most winning solution - she tries to come up with the most right solution, even if that means telling people that they're being jackasses.
And finally, the head scorekeeper for these cookoffs (not related to any of us at all) is someone who gets pissed if anyone even suggests that there's been any hanky-panky. She's thrown pots at people who asked her to fudge the numbers, and she doesn't mind telling people to fuck off.
I think it's mostly blown over by now, but that same cookoff is coming up in a few months...
A bit of backstory: My mother is a chili cook. She goes to ICS chili cookoffs fairly regularly throughout the year, and ends up going to the ICS world championship every year. Her husband has actually won the ICS championship with a batch of chili he screwed up on. She's been cooking long enough that she now runs several cookoffs (Note that this is an important detail).
I'm not much of a cook, myself. I can handle myself OK, but chili isn't something I go for - when I was a child, it made me throw up, so I've never really gotten to the point of adding it to my list of foods I like to eat.
Mom invited me along to some cookoffs a few years back for the company and my general carrying capacity (Hyaa, mule!). After a few cookoffs, she asked if we (Andara and I) would like to help judge the chili. At first, I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the idea, but I figured, what the hell - I practically have a cast-iron stomach these days, so I may as well give it a try.
I turn out to be a pretty good judge, partly because I'm not a chilihead, and I don't have any preconceived notions about what the chili should be like. There are some judging guidelines, but that's all they are - guidelines. I'm invited to come judge any time I'm available.
Fast forward to last year. Mom had a cookoff that she was running. One of my cousins was cooking in the cookoff, and I helped out with menial tasks, mostly setting up, lifting, carrying, and serving her People's Choice chili to passersby. I do some judging, and when the day ends, my cousin has won People's Choice for the day. It's not a small prize (it's actually more cash than the official competition!).
Any chili left over from judging the competition chili is still on the tables. The original cooks are encouraged to take theirs home, but few of them ever do. Once it's clear that the cooks aren't clearing their cups, anyone can take the rest of the chili. Mom suggests that I take whatever I can, and use it as a base for People's Choice chili. I spend the next hour filling quart-sized bags with competition chili, both red and green, and putting them in an ice chest.
The next day, we set up, and I start making People's Choice with the chili that was taken the previous day. I add beans to it (Competition chili can't have beans, pasta, or any other filler; People's Choice must have beans), and keep stirring it regularly. Whenever it runs low, I add more chili from a random bag. I keep up a constant line of patter for the customers, and generally use what salesmanship I have.
At the end of the day, my cousin wins the Red chili top prize, and there's some muttering in the crowd. I win People's Choice, and the announcement is met with silence. I walk up, claim my prize, and walk back into the crowd. Although the lack of crowd reaction felt a little odd, I didn't really think too much of it - I had money! I gave a good chunk of the winnings to my cousin (I was using her stove, pots, and propane), and that should have been the end of that.
We're having dinner that night, and I overhear cooks at nearby tables bitching about it. The phrases, "He's not a cook," and, "it must have been rigged - he's HER son," float through the air. The fact that my cousin won People's Choice one day and the main event the next day adds fuel to it, but I seem to be the main target of bitching. One of the more reasonable cooks comes over and discusses the matter with Mom, who sets things straight for them.
Now, there are a few things to remember here:
* This is People's Choice chili that we're talking about. The winner is determined by votes of random passersby who have paid $1 for the privilege of wandering around the cookoff with a cup and spoon, sampling chili from anyone who has a People's Choice pot.
* The chili that I used was freely available to any chili cook who wanted it, and it's a widely held opinion among cooks that the truly best chili is a blend of the top chilis at a competition. Mom suggested that I let anyone who wanted chili from the judging tables have first pick over me - I wasn't cherry-picking, I was sweeping the leftovers.
* We had a good location - we were right across from the ticket booth.
Okay, that's the suckiness. There are a few mitigating factors. My mom was in charge of the cookoff, my aunt (not my cousin's mom) was in charge of the People's Choice ballots (both handing them out and counting them), and my cousin and I were big winners for the weekend. Furthermore, I'm not a registered ICS cook, which means that I can't
There have been problems at other cookoffs in the past where, despite the double-blind method of judging that should prevent cheating, the judges have played favorites, and fudged the numbers to make someone who "shouldn't" win lose to someone who actually didn't win. That's been exposed and dealt with, but the stigma does still remain.
From the outside, that can clearly look like there was nepotism going on. However, my aunt is as anal and by-the-book as they come - she was an accountant before becoming a Contracts Administrator (She has finished law school, but hasn't passed the Bar). She wouldn't cheat for her own son, much less me. Likewise, my mom is a real straight arrow, and anyone who knows her should know this. She doesn't go out of her way to insult people, but when people drop a problem in her lap (part of her job as a Family Law attorney, now retired), she tells them what they need to do to fix the problem, period. She doesn't try to come up with the most winning solution - she tries to come up with the most right solution, even if that means telling people that they're being jackasses.
And finally, the head scorekeeper for these cookoffs (not related to any of us at all) is someone who gets pissed if anyone even suggests that there's been any hanky-panky. She's thrown pots at people who asked her to fudge the numbers, and she doesn't mind telling people to fuck off.
I think it's mostly blown over by now, but that same cookoff is coming up in a few months...
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