It’s become an annual must-attend event in Philomath — walking from booth-to-booth on a Sunday afternoon in September to challenge taste buds while testing the culinary skills of a couple dozen chili-making contingents that all believe they have the winning recipe.
Throw in an adult beverage or two, meet up with friends for good conversation and experience the satisfaction of contributing to the event’s fundraising efforts.
“It’s a place where people come together and see old friends and hang out and have a beer and eat a bunch of chili,” said Ken Rueben, retired police chief who has organized the event ever since it relocated to Philomath in 2019. “It’s in a great, relaxing atmosphere and people really enjoy it.”
The Public Safety Chili Cook-off will run from 2-6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8 in the Yew Wood Corral at the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo grounds. Admission is $10 (age 12 and older) and $5 (under age 12). Organizers encourage those planning to attend to purchase tickets in advance online but they will also be available at the gate. In addition to chili, there will be beer, wine and spirits for sale on site.
Rueben attributes a lot of the chili cook-off’s success to Philomath’s small-town atmosphere. In fact, he sees a lot of “return customers” year after year.
Said Rueben, “They taste the chili and they get the chit-chat going and you get the ‘hey, how did you make that?’ and ‘hey, we saw you last year and we really loved your chili’ and it becomes the same people because they just really enjoy it.”
The same type of positive interaction exists between the contestants. They all get started early in the morning and spend hours together before tasting opens up to the public.
“For the first half of the day, there’s no patrons there so it’s all the camaraderie between the teams,” Rueben said. “We’re working but it’s also a fun time to go around and interact with all of the other teams and test their chilis and find out what they’re using.”
Rueben has fun but he’s also very competitive and proud of the plaques that the Philomath Police Department team has won over the years. A chili traditionalist, he has used the same recipe for years and while the familiar combination of spices and other ingredients may find their way into the pot, there will be a new twist.
“We’re going to do a little something different this year,” he said. “We’re actually adding some smoked meat and that we’re going to do on site. … We’ll have to get there earlier to smoke it but we’re going to add some smoked brisket to our recipe. We’re still keeping it no beans — that’s real chili — but we’re going to add a little different flavor to it so we’ll see how that goes.”
Maintaining the small-town feel of the chili cook-off is important to the organizers. Rueben said he believes they could actually double the size of the event and although that might be fun, there are a lot of reasons to just cap the number of participants.
Besides, does anyone actually sample all of the chili with so many booths set up?
“If you think about it, if you taste 20 chilis out of 25, you’re full,” Rueben said. “You’ve eaten two full bowls of chili. And that’s a lot. Most people that we talk to taste between 12 and 15 and that’s about as much as they can eat.”
The chili cook-off’s charity gun raffle has become a tradition for Philomath Police. This year, a Browning Lever Action Rifle donated by Coastal Farms and Ranch will be given away to the winning ticket holder. A raffle booth will be set up at the event (tickets will be $2 each, three for $5, seven for $10 or 20 for $20).
A percentage of the cook-off’s proceeds will be donated for the third straight year to the 4 Spirits Veterans Scholarship Fund, which helps veterans pay for classes at Western Oregon University. Last year, the event raised $10,000 for the organization.
A smaller percentage of the proceeds will be split up between the Benton County Sheriff’s Foundation and the Philomath Police Foundation.
Chili tasters can choose their favorites for the people’s choice award through an online voting site that will be set up and accessible through smartphones (a QR code will be activated to make it easier to find it). A panel of judges will taste all entries to determine winners in other categories.
This year’s chili cook-off features 24 teams that will be split up into five divisions:
- Active 911
- Albany Police “Chili Heads”
- Alyrica
- Benton County CERT
- Benton County Schools Credit Union “The Has-Beans”
- BCSO “Blue Sisters Chili”
- Benton County Sheriff’s Office
- BCSO “Trash Pandas”
- BCSO Parole and Probation “Chili Con Carnage”
- BCSO County Jail
- Citizens Bank “Chili Check Cashers”
- City of Philomath “Chili with a Councilor”
- Civil Air Patrol “Oregon Wing CAP”
- Corvallis Police Department
- Corvallis Regional Communication Center
- Good Samaritan ER “IV Leaguers”
- KRKT with Codi Shull “Beans in Low Places”
- La Rockita “El Chile”
- Nick’s: Soul Food “The Soul Rebels”
- Oregon State Credit Union
- Oregon State University DPS “Hungry Beaver”
- Philomath Frolic “Roughstock’s Revenge”
- Philomath Police “Ring of Fire Chili”
- Philomath Rental “The Smokin’ Amigos”
