Spicy showdown at the Suncoast Builders Association Chili Cook Off

For Lakewood Ranch's Bea Spoerl, recipes are more of a guideline than something to be followed.

A self-described "What's in my refrigerator" cook, she uses whatever ingredients she has on hand. 

"Just use your imagination and do something different," Spoerl said. "Try not to do the same old, same old."

Spoerl, who owns Graber Cabinets, was among the 13 people to submit homemade chili for the fourth annual Chili Cook Off at Suncoast Builders Association March 12. 

"I started with what I thought was a recipe and then I just started adding other ingredients (including brown sugar, cocoa powder, hot honey and hot sauce)," Spoerl said. "My son (23-year-old Joshua) encouraged me to make it hotter. He was my taste tester and he gave me a thumbs up before I left." 

First place in the competition went to Nokomis' Jamison Eige, the vice president of sales for Direct Window & Door. Second place went to Bradenton's Carl Chitjian, a former restaurant owner, and third place went to Chad Reynolds, account manager of the gas division for Mechanical One. 

Eige described his chili as traditional with three pounds of ground beef as he believes every bite should have meat in it.

"There are four different kinds of peppers, onions and crushed tomatoes," Eige said. "The key to a good chili is so much chili powder that you feel like you've put in too much." 

Sarasota's Joe Ernst, business development manager at G&C Outdoor Kitchens, showed up with a less traditional chili made by his wife, Erin. The base was made of pumpkin. 

"I knew nobody's ever had that here, so I wanted to bring something different into the mix," Ernst said. "It's not spicy, it has a little different taste to it. It was made with turkey meat instead of beef, pumpkin puree, chili beans. Everything else is pretty much normal for a chili, but Erin has a couple secret ingredients she won't even tell me." 

Kim Boynton, the membership committee chair for Suncoast Builders Association said the event was put on to attract new members and have something fun for current members. Right now there are over 600 members and Boynton said the goal is to increase to 1,000.

Another goal of the event was to raise money to go toward the Suncoast Apprenticeship Academy, a new trade school they hope to open within a year or two.

"This is a huge networking opportunity to talk to other like-minded business individuals within our industry to share ideas, share business and share opportunities with others," Ernst said. "There's a lot of new faces here tonight that I've never seen before."