Greensburg area restaurants compete for charity in chili cookoff

People are passionate about food. And when the dish can be as diverse as chili, their opinions can get just as spicy as the peppers.

“White chicken chili is soup. It’s not chili,” said Brian Root of Greensburg, eliciting an immediate frown from Michelle Havrilesko, who had just finished eating a cup of white chicken chili at the YWCA and Feeding the Spirit Chili Cook-Off fundraiser, held Feb. 2 at Greensburg Hose Company No. 2.

“White chili is the only kind I really like,” said Havrilesko, a board member with nonprofit Feeding the Spirit.

“I eat it and I like it,” Root countered. “But you can’t compare it to chili.”

“We’re going to take this outside,” Havrilesko said, laughing.

The competition among Greensburg area restaurants was no less fierce, as they vied to take home awards for Best Overall, Most Original and Spiciest chili.

YWCA Executive Director Carol Palcic said she’s hoping to continue partnering with Feeding the Spirit.

“We worked with them on their hats and mittens project downtown last year, and it went really well, so we decided to do another event,” she said.

A $10 ticket bought attendees a tasting of all of the chili, along with voting ballots for favorites in each category. A $20 ticket bought the tasting along with a meal for a community resident through Feeding the Spirit.

“We’re also making it fully open to the community,” Palcic said. “If someone can’t afford to pay, we’re happy to still have them. That’s partly what the money is going to in the first place: helping to feed people in need.”

Jaffre’s owner Mike Jaffre was hoping the crowd would like his Greensburg’s restaurant’s two-bean chili made with filet mignon.

“We’re serving it with honey-glazed cornbread croutons, trying to offer something a little different and unique,” Jaffre said.

It turned out to be a good tactic — Jaffre’s entry won the award for Most Original.

At the other end of the fire hall, 3 Stone Merchant and J. Corks general manager Nancy Pastorius was doing double-duty for the Greensburg restaurants, serving the former’s pork and smoked pepper chili, along with what turned out to be the Best Overall winner, J. Corks “Texas Airport Chili.”

It’s a pretty ironic name, considering it violates one of the sacrosanct Texas chili rules: no beans. Pastorius said the airport where they first tasted it was the only place they’d seen in the Lone Star State that served its chili with beans.

That was just fine with Sandy Beauregard of Greensburg, who had six of the nine different competition entries lined up in front of her.

“I prefer beans,” she said. “The meat doesn’t matter but the spice level has to be right, somewhere between mild and a little spicy. I’m 80 years old, I don’t need it to be super hot.”

Fans of spicy chili opted for Morelands at Waterworks. The South Greensburg restaurant, which entered traditional and white chicken varieties in the competition, won the award for Spiciest.

Proceeds from the cook-off will benefit YWCA Westmoreland County and Feeding the Spirit’s community programs.