Houston Blog

Nate: I agree with you that the gumbo and the curry were great. The gumbo in particular was excellent, although a tad bit brothy, and had a lovely, complex flavor. But the winners were compiled from the tallies of four separate judges' votes in three different categories (one of which was creativity, and gumbo isn't that creative in a cookoff like this); such is life. :)

Next year, I expect those gumbo and curry cooks to bring it. They did a great job this time; can't wait to see what they do next time around. :)

Smokin 2 Texans made some of the best chili I have ever eaten and they also had a rockin booth! They won best theme booth and best dish so! It was a sweep This was decided by experienced judges. It was a great event and looking forward to next year at the new location for St Arnolds.

I have one question: where can I buy the Saint Arnold hockey jerseys one team was wearing?!

Overall a fabulous event ~ a better time can't be had for $15. And best of all - money raised for the food bank.

The point of the day is to have fun and raise money. However a lot of the teams put a lot of time, thought, and money into this event ~ and into following the spirit of the rules.

While you don't want the rules to become so rigid and for the event to quickly lose its fun, some of the entries CLEARLY did not stick to the spirit of the rules - that being, you can prep basic ingredients at home, but the bulk of the cooking should take place on site in one pot.

I've witnessed the tamale making process at a friend's house with her Hispanic mother, grandmother, and aunts. It is a TIME CONSUMING process. While the tamales that were offered @ the cookoff were quite tasty, there is no possible way they were prepared and cooked on site in under 4 hours - in ONE POT. I'm all for loose rules and don't want this to turn into an event where the judges inspect the teams' coolers as they enter the brewery, but the tamale team WAY crossed the line and abused the spirit of the "prepared on site in one pot".

I hate singling out this team - because this is a great group of guys that bring such a fun spirit to the event and each year have some sort of silly little activity for the kids. But I am singling out their dish because it's a prime example of a team winning that didn't come close to following the rules.

They showed up on site with premade tamales and steamed them in beer. Is that the spirit of "cooked on site" or am I arguing about semantics? You be the judge.

Also, the judges don't seem to follow the judging criteria - 1) overall flavor 2) taste of beer coming through 3) creativity.

If creativity accounts for 1/3, how does chili win? There is nothing LESS creative or more pedestrian than chili. Even assuming the chili got 100% of possible points on flavor and 100% on the taste of beer coming through, it should have gotten 0 points for creativity and thus, should not have been awarded more than 66% of the total overall points possible and therefore should not have been the overall winner.

I guess at the end of the day the teams who "played by the rules" might have room to be a little resentful of the teams who didn't, and of the judging process which didn't follow the rules that were laid out either.

All nitpicking aside, it really is a fabulous, fun-filled day! And a little money went to the food bank. I'm sure the event will only continue to grow and I have faith the St. Arnold's staff will learn from this year's event, as they learned from last year's event, and the small kinks will work themselves out.

There were alot of things going on at this cook-off. I give it 4.5 stars out of 5. Everything would have been perfect had the judges done their job. While there were several rules to follow, the #1 rule should have been the most important, "One Pot". I feel sorry for every team that followed the rules and didn't have the chance to place 3rd. I understand there were some "not so good" products out there. I'm sure had everyone known that the "one pot" rule was going to be thrown out the door during the judging, teams might have taken a different route!

Katharine,

I'm sorry for any miscommunication on my part. I have no doubt that they made the tamales themselves at home and did not mean to imply otherwise.

My only beef is that they showed up with them premade and all they had to do the day of was steam them.

It's just not in the spirit of the competition, which is called after all, "The ONE POT Showdown", and where the rules state that the cooking should take place ON SITE.

While prepping items at home was allowed, I think cooking the chicken, making the masa, and stuffing the tamales all at home prior to the event goes just a little beyond "prepping".

Oh well - either way they were damn tasty and it was a fun day!

Katherine,

So I was under the impression that good tamales had more meat in them and were not stuffed with masa. Is this not the case?

Last time I checked it wasn't called the "Make it at home and reheat it at the brewery" showdown.

This year's set up was much better - better traffice flow than last year. I can only guess this event will be even better in their new space!

Wow! I didn't think the cookoff would generate this much debate! I thought it was just a fun day to sample great beer and great food!

I was a member of a cooking team that had direct view of the tamale makers in question. I can vouch that the tamales were not made on site. There was no chicken cooking, shredding, masa making, tamale stuffing going on that day at Saint Arnold's.

But I can vouch that there was a lot of fun going on and money being raised.

I don't know what the answer is on how to handle bending of the rules - but clearly people are upset. I overheard one guy bitching loudly about the tamale team the day of the event (not one of my team members). He was PISSED. And that was before they'd been awarded 3rd place.

As a team that worked hard to play by the rules, I've got to admit it's a little disheartening to lose out to a team that didn't.

But it's not like I'm going to post in the Houston Press blog the next day about it...
;)

Agreed with Anonymous on his post. I was a member of a cooking team and we made sure that everything was prepared in one pot. After seeing several of the other competitors not stick to the "spirit of the contest" and go outside the rules, my cooking partner and I discussed how we would have done things a little differently. We'll definitely be competing again next year, and based on this year's contest we are motivated to "bring it" next year.

I was in the booth next to los carnes, and can verify that the tamales they served were rolled on-site.

Yes they had additional tamales premade but they didnt end up needing them and didnt even steam them.

Who the hell cares if they had premade masa? We pre-grilled our chicken for our curry. And I sure as heck didnt see anybody out there smoking/grinding sausage for their gumbo... Every dish out there had off-the-shelf/premade ingredients. Fact is they showed up on site and cooked a great dish and contributed to the overall fun because of it.

Cheers.
JB

First of all, I agree w/ the sentiment of Chuck's post.

El Burro ~ I'm glad to hear you can verify the tamales were rolled on site. I'd also like to say that up until your post I'd thought your team had been robbed! Best tasting dish out there IMO.

However, using pre grilled chicken? Really? Is that in the spirit of ONE POT cooked ON SITE? I think not.

Dicing veggies at home the day before is one thing. Cooking the chicken the day before? That's a bit of a stretch, isn't it? Just sayin'....

As for the comments regarding sausage, teams received very specific emails from the Brewery stating the exception to the rules regarding sausage - that due to the nature of the ingredient it could be pre-packaged/ready to go.

Seriously, it's a great event so let's not lose sight of that.

They asked the teams show some integrity and keep in the spirit of "cooked on site in one pot". I guess some teams have different ideas of what "cooked on site" means and/or varying degrees of integrity.

Next year why don't you buy a pre-roasted chickens from Randall's for the curry? That might save you even more time.

Just a thought....

I am one of the members of Los Carnes and wanted to explain our dish.

We had similar concerns about making tamales ourselves knowing that there could be some gray area, which is why for everything we did we asked St Arnold One Pot officials about it up front and got their approval. Weeks before we told them what we were making (just like we did last year with our Deep Fried Cookie Dough) and they gave us the go ahead.

We did roll tamales onsite however, and thank you to el Burro from "The Good, The Bad, and the Curry" who vouched for us. Your dish was truly amazing.

It wasn't our intention to break any rules, but to take full advantage of the #1 judging criteria: Creativity. Who wants just a bunch of stews?

One of my recommendations to St Arnold for next year was to establish food categories so that there was less controversy and we could focus on more important things like the Houston Food Bank and entertaining the attendants.

We have enjoyed doing this event the past two years and look forward to participating again.

Viven Los Carnes!

Maybe if some of the complainers had spent more time focusing on how to conceive and present a creative dish for a charitable event, instead of spending so much time and energy speculating on how the third place team made its tamales, they'd have won.

I thought almost all the food was excellent, rules or not. In fact, my favorite was the shrimp tacos and they were disqualified, because of all their garnishes (so rules WERE inforced). You're never going to make everyone happy, especially when they aren't one of the winning teams. I wish more people would have embraced the fun spirit and charity part rather than bitching about the judges or the enforcement of rules (which I found to be enforced pretty well). I guess that the fun part of gathering as a community to eat some great grub, drink some great beer and raise money for a good cause isn't enough to keep sore losers from thinking that their lack of culinary talent (or scorching the bottom of their pots) isn't the REAL reason they didn't place. Just fyi-I wasn't in the competition at all, just someone enjoying the festivities.

I was a happy eater at this event as well, and I had no idea so much good food could be prepared by so many bitter contestants!

From what I've read here, it seems clear that Los Carnes checked with the judges in advance and received approval for their recipe and cooking plan. They prepped the ingredients at home, then showed up, rolled and steamed tamales all morning, and served them alongside everyone else. By their own description, this is exactly what the Curry team did, and it's probably how most of the other teams prepped.

If you're angry or frustrated that someone else pulled off a more creative dish than you, maybe you should spend more time on your recipe (and prep time!) and less time throwing around baseless and inaccurate accusations.

And thank you, members of Los Carnes and Good, Bad and Curry, for posting honest and straightforward rebuttals. My own personal rankings:

Curry
Tamales
Hoppy Balls

See y'all next year!

Well then, why don't we call it the "Make It The Day Ahead At Home And Microwave It The Next Day At The Brewery" cookoff?

That way nobody has to bother with following any silly little annoying rules or be bothered with any actual cooking the day of. All that stuff just gets in the way of drinking beer anyway.

Prepping = dicing raw ingredients at home. Cheating = roasting entire freaking chickens, deboning, and shredding them at home.

I do give full credit where credit is due for creativity and taste.

My points about what constitutes "prepping" aside, there still begs the rule of "one pot" cooked "on site". ONE pot. ON site.

The rules are simple.

It's not just one rule that was abused - it's several.

For the record I'm not talking about any one team in particular.

Sorry - I really wasn't calling out any one team in particular.

Perhaps this issue will be resolved with clearer rules next year (i.e. Yes, pre-cooked chicken is allowed or No, pre-cooked chicken is not allowed.)

No problemo, El Duko, you just needed a longer spoon!

I wont to thank Lennie and his staff for putting on a great format for us to play in. I still do not see any positive feed back to lennie as to how Saint Arnolds can make this better in the future for all of us. I think of a Quote in sports that rings out " IF YOU ARE NOT CHEATING YOU ARE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH", that is on a professional basis that i say this. We have lost the spirit of this venue and what our goals are for the day Rasise Money for CHARITY, serve the masses, drink some great beer and have fun if anyone goes to a venue of this type for a trophy i would say to them GET A LIFE! Yes human nature set in and we wont that trophy for bragging rights but Saint Arnolds formost wonts eveyone to have FUN and help out a good cause. Lets start seeing positive feed back so we can have more fun next year at the new location

Saint Arnold's, this was a great event!

This was only the 2nd Annual One Pot Showdown so naturally there were/are questions about the rules. The rules were more defined this year than last year and will probably be even better defined next year. The kinks will get worked out.

This is a great event for charity and also for companies trying to get their name out in the public.

I'm interested in seeing the recipies posted. Was there buffalo (bison) meat in the Buffalo Ale Chili or was there a buffalo wing-type-of-sauce in that chili?

I never relized how much complaining there was going to be Most of you are bunch of cry babies Why don't you just accept the fact that you did not win and try harder next year Winners do not complain, they just accept the trophies

Christ Almighty, people. It was a day of FOOD COOKED IN BEER. There is no down side to that!

Did I hit a nerve snake. From your writing I do belive so. I do not want to debate education with you snake,but from your writing I know I am much more educated then you,plus I hold two degrees.You might want to check your spelling next time.Just a suggestion.Try to have a good time in life and quit complaining.By the way snake I did win the cookoff! Someday you might win if you get a better attitude!

I noticed the word "charity" throughout a few blogs. This was not a charity event, it was a COMPETITION and a clever advertising gimic. Yes, this was meant for people to come out and have fun but in all honesty 95% of the teams took it seriously, otherwise you wouldn't have had creative and interesting dishes. So stop using the word "charity" as a crutch as to why team members don't have the right to complain about how the rules weren't followed. It's plain and simple, certain rules were followed while others were simply ignored. St. Arnold's took a risk like any other company does when it creates this type of event. I was not on a cooking team, but I was a proud foodie participant.

Let's all be aware that had this been a true charity event:
-teams would not have had to pay to be in the "competition", because their donated time and food would have clearly been enough
-all of the proceeds (ticket costs) would have gone to the charity being honored, because the company would not have been concerned about recovering any losses it incurred
- the prizes would not have been that significant, it would have been a simple trophy or plaque
After all it's all about the charity not the competition, correct? That's the huge difference. Those are just a few reasons this WAS NOT a charity event and it was a "Showdown".

Perhaps a few words (i.e., showdown, charity, one-pot) which were originally thought harmless are now taboo! This is too bad, but maybe a new definition of the "showdown" will need to be created. More work for our friends at the brewery....

Snake,what a name!I can see how you got that name!Might want to change it because it does not help you at all.The way you write I am sure you do not hold a doctorate!Did you get out of high school! I would not talk about a winner till you have have the nerve to enter a cookoff and even finish. Do you even know how to cook.I doubt it! Quit being a jerk and cutting the judges down! They know a lot more than you do! They did a good job! By the way I am a gracious winner till I run into people like you!

Pappy: As your posts continue to have grammatical and spelling errors, I will just assume you are unteachable and leave it at that.

So let's see. Your first two posts you stated that your own chili was the best you've ever tasted without actually admitting that you were in fact part of the team that made the chili. Don't you think that is a little dishonest and ungracious? I am also glad that you think that your booth decorations were "rockin" when they consisted of ya'll wearing Texans jerseys and putting up a bunch of store bought Texans gear. How original. But, there's no shame in your game, you played off the popularity of the Texans and it worked out for you. That was a smart marketing move. But, what isn't a smart marketing move is making yourself out to be a jackass on this forum when people know which team you belong to. Although, it would be pretty awesome if you were just some smuck trying to sandbag the 2 smokin texan team.

Also, if you had an education, you would understand that I am criticizing the judges, not cutting them down. Whether or not I know how to cook is irrelevant. What is in question is the quality of my palate and my ability to remain unbiased. You have already shown yourself to be unable to remain unbiased as per your first two dishonest posts. Your counter arguments, as far as I can tell consists of "I won, I'm awesome, I like my own chili, Everybody else can shut up if they don't like it." That's just being pigheaded, it isn't actually adding to the discussion. If you act like a jerk at the first sign of someone disagreeing with you, that makes you a jerk. Anyone can be nice to someone who agrees with them.

Nate the snake: I believe you are a kid that I have been talking to. With that name and reading your writing I have come to that conclusion. When you grow up and win something let me know and we will talk more. You also need to watch your language because you are showing your age.You will get a spanking if you are not carefull!

I thought the main ingredient was supposed to be beer... but people must have gotten confused b/c all I see is a lot of "whine".

I'm gonna go ahead and invoke Godwin's Law and declare that you are all Hitler.

seriously, this really shouldn't be that big of a deal. Let St. Arnold's consider the opinions and then set the rules however they want to set them.

Hey, I happen to love TGI Fridays! Have you tried their "Kickin'Chicken" bites? It both rhymes AND tastes great.

Comment for A Creative Loser...

I know the person (Ron) very well that developed the reciepe for the buffalo chili that won the cook off. He spent several weekends working and developing that reciepe and had a hard time deciding which Saint Arnold beers to use in the reciepe. He made 5 different pots of chili with 5 different Saint Arnold beers and invited several friends over to taste and help in the decision. I personally tasted all of these so to hear someone make those comments with no basis or knowledge of the time spent is beyond me.

This was the first year this team entered the competition but their second year in attendance and no their not on any chili circuit.

I was under the impression the one award was for the most spirited booth and from what I saw those guys were having a great time all day.

Anyway, enough of that. It is a great event and for a worthy cause to boot. I can't wait to attend again for the third year in a row.

Thanks to Brock, Lennie and all the staff for another great time compliments of Saint Arnold.

As a competitor that had fun even though we didn't place ~ and who is greatful to everyone at the Brewery ~ I think the lesson to be learned from all these posts is that while we don't want Draconian measures in place involving third party cooler inspectors, there does need to be a bit further clarification of the rules. No big deal ~ St. Arnold's staff will undoubtedly do so and keep tweaking it until they've reached a nice balance.

Now - what I'm about to say is not in any way sour grapes - but I was in a booth near the winning team - and they had a double burner going and another pot in the back...

It wasn't the 3 pot showdown. It was the 1 pot showdown. Just a little frustrating when we stuck to the most basic of rules that are spelled out in the name of the event itself.

No worries - we'll be back next year and have a great time again no matter what the other teams are doing and leave feeling good about ourselves, trophy in hand or not, knowing we played by the most basic of rules. In the meantime, I know St. Arnold's will adjust, as they did this year, and the playing field will be a bit more level.

Until next year, happy drinking and happy cooking!

oops - meant grateful, not greatful in my earlier post...