In 1991, my wife Era, and I formed the Bootleg Corporation to produce spicy barbecue and sweet and sour sauces. At events in Washington, Montana, Oregon, and as far away as Ohio, and Arizona, we won First Place awards for our Bar-B-Que sauces.
The Chili Blend addition started on a dare in 1996. Talking to a co-worker, (Dale Sugden) about having entered chili cook-offs in previous years in other states that we lived in, our conversation was over heard and we were both challenged on the spot, "If you think you make good chili, just enter a cook-off in the Northwest here and you'll find out what, our chili is REALLY like!" With his words ringing in our ears, we took up that challenge, not knowing all the permits, registration, and fee's that were needed, it wasn't until 1997 that we entered our first major cook-off, the Southern Washington, Fort Vancouver River Rhythms Festival. Along with our close friend Dale, Era and I entered my family recipe and captured third place in the highly coveted Peoples Choice category! That same day we were challenged by two of be local fire departments to see if we dared to enter the Harvest Festival in Battleground, Washington. Three weeks later we were surprised to see many of the same teams competing. With just a slight modification to the recipe, we took first place in Judges and Best in Showmanship. (Since then Bootleg Chili has won, eight first place and two second place trophies in the three category's).
These initial wins tantalized our team to continue, and we were determined to be a top contender for the l 998 competitions. The basic recipe was tweaked until we had it just where we wanted it, the hardest part was getting the "Heat" right, and how it would release it's tantalizing endorphins on your palette. We were ready for the "Fort" cook-off, from a starting time at 6 AM. until the awards were announced at 5 p.m., made for a long hot July day, but taking first place in Judge's, made it all worth-while. Three weeks later, a first in Judge's, People's Choice, and second in Show at the Harvest Festival topped off the season.
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We joined I.C.S. (International Chili Society) and C.A.S.I (Chili Appreciation Society International) and entered many of there events and found out we did really good in Peoples Choice awards but poorly in Judges. The dilemma was easily solved for the team, we kept our tasty recipe that the people favored. Keeping our original recipe proved to be the right move, this final version became our "Alpha" test batch that won the Oregon State 1999 People's Choice and Judge's awards. This also gave us the chance to represent Oregon in the International Chili Cook-off in Terlingua Texas.
This is when we made the decision to package our Chili Blend, keeping it simple, but making a bold visual statement, and about a year, of permits, papers and a lot of company's that won't even talk to you unless you order 100,000 bags or more, we had our final product. Do it again? Sure, Dale and I love to cook.
With two years of successful sales from the Chili Blend we were ready to expand our love of cooking to include bar-b-cue. The jumping off point included the K. C. Baron Of Barbecue, Chef Paul Kirk's School of Pitmasters, and the, Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association's, Spring Competition. With a second place in beef brisket, (30 teams competing). Dale and I knew we had a winner with our Dry Rub. The same efforts went into producing this delectable blend of spice's, and on the 2001 Memorial Day weekend we launched our Bootleg Dry Rub.
There are many stories to accompany this brief history, - some are side splitting funny, olhers would make you think twice about starting an adventure like this, but more on those at a future date. What's in- our future? More defending competitions, and a renewed effort to produce the B.B.Q. sauce on a limited basis.
Thank you for taking the time to read our story, and we hope you will get the chance to try our custom blends in the near future, Jerry Fischer, President, Bootleg Chili Inc.
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