Fancy yourself a chili-making expert? Then here’s your chance to throw your hat in the ring for Cooks’ Chili Cook-off! Besides braggin’ rights, the winner will receive a 5.5-quart Le Creuset Dutch oven worth $235 plus a set of Cooks’ favorite hot sauces perfect to finish off that beautiful pot of beans.

Stage 1: Complete our online submission form (below). All entries must be received by September 30th, 2011. We’ll take a look at all the recipes and whittle down the entries to the top ten.

Stage 2: If selected, create a sample batch of chili for our blind tasting. On October 11th the top ten chili chefs will bring two quarts of their simmering stew to Cooks in St. Paul for our staff to blind-taste. The top three chilis will move on to the final round.

Stage 3: Cooks’ Chili Cook-off will open the judging up to students attending the class. On October 23rd from 5-7pm Cooks’ team of professional chefs will prepare the finalists’ chilis to the letter of the recipes. The Chili Cook-off students will sample all three (plus a fall salad, cowboy cornbread and triple-chocolate brownies) and the winner will claim their prizes and honors!

Submission Form