Things that are back: Fall, the downtown chili cookoff, Dining with Denise’s chili booth
After a three-year break from the Wichita Wagonmasters Downtown Chili Cookoff, it’s finally time for Dining with Denise to make a glorious return.
On Saturday, my chili will be among the dozens of concoctions competing for trophies and bragging rights when the big tasting event returns to downtown Wichita. The cookoff, a downtown tradition since 2005, always draws thousands of people who buy $5 “tasting kits” and then are set loose to sample all the chili they can manage.
This year, as has been the case since its post-pandemic return in 2021, the event will be set up along the 500 block of East Douglas and near Naftzger Park. The street will be shut down, and the more than 65 competing teams — made up of friends, co-workers, restaurants and groups that have been competing for years — will set up their booths all along it.
I first got the crazy idea to enter a Dining with Denise team in the cookoff in 2017, and I did it for three consecutive years — always managing to cook up a fabulous batch of chili (if I do say so myself) but rarely remembering to get my entry to the judging tent by the deadline. (It’s too hectic trying to pass out all that chili! Time slips away!)
My last year there was 2019. The pandemic canceled the cook off in 2020. Then, in 2021, I had a conflict. Last year I just plain forgot to register in time.
But this year, I started getting nostalgic for that 5 a.m. alarm, that pre-dawn packing and hauling of propane, pots and ground beef, that sweaty, thirsty work of passing out hundreds of shot-sized samples of chili to an endlessly ravenous public.
The pre-pandemic Denise felt pressure to come up with an inventive new recipe every year. But 2023 Denise is going to keep it simple and prepare the same recipe for red chili with beans that I’ve been serving my friends and family for 20 years. It involves beer, and it’s a good one. My booth will be the one with the big Dining with Denise banner at the top.
Here’s everything you need to know about the cookoff:
Location: The chili competitors will be set up on Saturday along the 500 block of East Douglas and in front of Naftzger Park, and parts of Douglas will be closed down.
Public tasting: It starts at noon, and if you’re not there at noon, you might not get much chili. Gates and beer sales open at 10 a.m.
Cost: Festival attendees buy $5 tasting kits on site then can have as many samples as they want. They’ll also get a full bowl of chili prepared by event organizers the Wichita Wagonmasters. Beer and other beverages will be for sale inside the cookoff’s footprint.
Music: The band Epic will perform at the festival
Pepper-eating contest: A pepper-eating contest starts at 2:45 p.m. at the festival’s main stage at Naftzger Park. Whichever contestant eats the most peppers in five minutes “without losing it” wins $100
Proceeds: Money raised at the event will go to Good Life Grants, which the organizers use to support local charities
For more information: Visit www.wagonmasters.org/chili-cookoff
This story was originally published September 27, 2023 at 2:43 PM.
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