Dr. Joseph Wetterhahn is looking forward to defending the coveted People's Choice Award his team won at last year's North Country Chili Cook-Off.
He's just not putting a lot of thought into the finished product — something that doesn't worry him one bit.
“We won't know until the day we put it together,” he said of this year's recipe. His team will compete with 34 others Saturday at the Dulles State Office Building on Washington Street during the 13th annual North Country Chili Cook-Off.
More thought has been put into the theme of his team, sponsored by Samaritan Family Health Center.
“We got a couple of engineers on the team constructing our props and staging,” he said of the pirate theme.
The casual cooking approach seems to work, he said.
“We think a recipe is constricting and gets in the way of creativity,” he said. “It creates a spirit of adventure, too. If you follow a recipe, you are guaranteed chili in the end. If you go with your instincts, anything can happen.”
Luckily, his team has medical personnel standing by if a combination of odd ingredients violate the rules of chemistry or seriously messes with an individual's intestinal fortitude.
“So far, nobody has been harmed by our chili,” Dr. Wetterhahn said. “Some people have sworn off chili.”
Dr. Wetterhahn returned to the North Country Chili Cook-Off last year after taking a few years off. He recalled the years the team went with “healthy” themes. They created chili with fruit. And he can't forget the year they entered the vegetarian category.
“We finished second in the vegetarian category,” he said. “We were second out of two.”
So last year, the team “swore off” healthy chili.
“We went the other way,” Dr. Wetterhahn said. “We went with as much fat, grease and bacon as you can stick into a bowl and topped it with sour cream and then put cheese on top of that. I don't know if it was for job security or just because we know that's what people want to eat, but we won.”
But the chili cook-off, the doctor said, is one day where winter-weary north country residents can splurge in their eating habits. Attendees may sample an unlimited amount of chili in a free-range atmosphere.
“They should be able to come out and do that and go back to their healthy diets the next day,” Dr. Wetterhahn said.
But one thing there is no going back to is the epic cook-off rivalry that Dr. Wetterhahn faced in past years from a team led by Dr. Collins F. Kellogg at Watertown Internists. A spokeswoman for Dr. Kellogg said he remains a big supporter of the cook-off, but his chili competition days are over.
Asked to comment on that, Dr. Wetterhahn stressed: “I didn't bring this topic up. But now that the question is out there, I suppose we have to address it.”
Dr. Wetterhahn said competing these days without Dr. Kellogg is like a baseball season where there is no Yankee team to play the Red Sox.
He theorized Dr. Kellogg may have been scared off by the Wetterhahn team's People's Choice award.
“He's got his reasons,” Dr. Wetterhahn said. “I'd be afraid too. But remember, I didn't bring this up.”
Funds for transportation
The annual cook-off is hosted by the Jefferson County American Legion Auxiliary and assisted by American Legion Family, American Legion and Sons of the American Legion to benefit the Volunteer Transportation Center. Last year, $32,000 was raised at the cook-off, about $2,000 more than the previous year.
The center has “two arms” of services: Medicaid recipients' transportation is coordinated through the Department of Social Services and other transportation, for veterans, senior citizens, people with disabilities and the visually impaired, is funded by benefit events.
Proceeds from the chili cook-off specifically benefit the medical transportation of local veterans.
Samuel M. Purington, executive director of the Volunteer Transportation Center, said the need to transport veterans to medical appointments has increased in the past few years and makes up about 52 percent of trips by the center.
Mr. Purington said many soldiers at Fort Drum decide to stay in the area, which benefits the region. “But they may not have the family support services,” he said. “It's great to have the medical facilities up here for the military, but you have to get to them.”
