Fire Department chili lunch cooks up crowd

Photo By Cpl. Andrew Thorburn | The 480 quarts of fresh chili was made for the 13th annual Chili Lunch at the Combat Center’s Fire Department Oct 8, 2010.  

TWENTYNINE PALMS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES

10.15.2010

Story by Lance Cpl. Andrew Thorburn 

Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center

Hundreds of Combat Center personnel wolfed down gallons of chili during the 13th annual Chili Lunch at the Combat Center’s fire department Oct. 8.

“The event is held every year on Friday during fire prevention week which always falls on the week of the ninth of October,” said Darlene Hull, the assistant fire chief for the Combat Center’s fire department. “It is in recognition of the Great Chicago Fire. [The fire] was an event that heightened awareness about fire prevention,” she said. This year’s theme is “Stop fires before they start.” The key message of fire prevention week is that every home should have a functioning fire detector.

The cook-off began humbly in 1998 and has expanded every year, Hull said.

“We started it out using canned chili from Costco. It has evolved to an event where we do it all from scratch,” Hull said. “We start out with 210 pounds of ground beef, 150 pounds of dried beans, everything is hand cut and hand prepared with the exception of the tomato paste and chopped tomatoes. When we are finished we have 480 quarts of fresh chili, and we spice them different for each pot. We go anywhere from really spicy to really mild.”

Since the chili is prepared from scratch, the firemen begin cooking days before the actual event.

“Tuesday is when we started cooking and preparing the ground beef and that took about 6 hours,” said Sam Moore, the assistant chief for the fire departments training division. “Then we get into the beans and with six other firemen, we go through them and sort out the rocks and twigs, then soak them overnight.”

Moore, a native of Twentynine Palms, Calif., explained they spend the next day cooking the beans and adding all the ingredients.

“We cook enough chili to feed about 1,500 people and enough hot dogs to add about 580 to that,” Hull said.

With years of cooking and improving the chili, the event has gained a lot of dedicated followers.

Scott Wright, a support analyst for the Exercise Support Division and a native of Twentynine Palms, said he has faithfully attended the lunch for 10 years and will keep coming back for the chili.

Hull said the next chili lunch should start creeping into people’s heads this spring.

“It is a recurring event, so a lot of people who are permanent personnel or civilians supporting Marines start asking about the tickets in the spring or even earlier than that,” Hull said.

• Date Taken: 10.15.2010
• Date Posted: 10.15.2010 19:19
• Story ID: 58221
• Location: TWENTYNINE PALMS, CALIFORNIA, US