Throwing together a winning pot of chili

MOSES LAKE — When asked to describe what was in his chili, Roy Bergsholm couldn’t.

“When I make chili, it’s never the same twice. I just kind of throw it together,” Bergsholm said as he stirred a giant crock pot full of his chili.

He listed ground beef, a couple of different kinds of beans, vinegar, and bacon.

But then, everyone that day made their chili with bacon.

“It depends on what I have on hand,” added a man who goes by the name Tiny — it said so on his leather motorcycle vest — sitting right next to Bergsholm and stirring his own giant pot of chili.

Both Bergsholm and Tiny — whose name is Dewayne Kaestner — along with three other contestants, were serving up chili as part of a cook off at the Central Washington Home and Lifestyle Expo on Saturday at the Grant County Fairgrounds.

According to Pat Hanford, whose very meaty chili won the most votes, most of the chili makers present on Saturday were motorcyclists with the American Legion Riders and were there supporting the Grant County chapter of ABATE — American Bikers Against Tyrannical Enactments — that fights for free access to roads and highways for motorcyclists across the country.

Hanford, the owner of Heaven’s Best Carpet Cleaners in Moses Lake, said this was his first time out cooking chili.

He then echoed a common theme as common among Saturday’s chili cookers as patch-covered motorcycle vests.

“I just threw this together,” he said. “I cook a lot for the [American] Legion. … My passion is the American Legion Riders.”

“I’ve been cooking chili more years than I can count,” said Tiny, a retired line cook with 35 years experience whose chili won second place. “Normally, I cook chili for three days, but this was a rush job, and we only had three hours to cook today.”

But it was Cathy and Terry Vertrees of Ephrata who had bigger dreams than simply winning first place in a chili cook-off.

“We would like to open our own restaurant,” said Terry, who currently drives truck. “A steak house. I can grill a good steak. With a nice family environment. In Ephrata. They don’t have anything like that.”

Along with his big crock pot of chili, Vertrees also had a bowl of homemade salsa and a four-alarm hot sauce with a brutal slow burn that he makes himself.

“Hot, isn’t it?” he said, smiling. “That takes me three days to make.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.