Red Hot Chili Mommas: Forum Posts

stuff we used last year

John Thompson said that they have a big outdoor burner that we could use for the chili

The Rules

The Great Sausalito Chili Cookoff

Each team will receive two souvenir aprons and two participant ribbons. You may purchase additional aprons and ribbons after August 25th. Set up will begin at 7:00 am. A site map will be provided with your booth number. All contestants will begin cooking promptly at 8:00 am. All chili must be cooked from scratch. Ingredients may not be prepared prior to the cook-off and must be put together at the event. Only beans may be presoaked prior to the cook-off.

Tasting will begin at 12:00 pm. Judges Choice judging time will be 12:00 pm & Peoples Choice judging will begin at 2:30 pm.

You must cook a minimum of 5 gallons of your famous chili.

Contestants will bring their own materials, supplies, pots, stoves, utensils, tables, and cooking apparatus. There is no electricity available for heat source.

There is a special award for Ambience for the best presentation, i.e. costumes, music, booth decorations. Please remember this is a family event. Use good taste in displays and attire.

Tasting cups and spoons will be provided.

More transparency

Last year it cost about $500: ~$150 beer/booze, ~$150 food/supplies (we ran out of chili early, so this needs to increase a bit), ~$250 decorations/signage/entry fees/t-shirts/etc.

The minimum cost is about $400 (chili ingredients, beer, equipment rental to cook, minimal signage, etc.). Agree 100% that we need to establish a budget and make sure everyone is comfortable with what we ultimately decide to do/spend:

Here's an EXAMPLE budget - intended to create some discussion/debate and help us figure out what we want to spend and how we can get creative to keep the costs down...

$250     Chili Ingredients (big cost, but reflects the need for us to make a larger batch this year since we ran out early)
$100     Equipmement (2-Burners, Fuel, Industrial cooking pots/pans)
$50       Beer & Booze (assumes a beer sponsor)
$25       Softdrinks/Water/Kids Juice (we can cut and bring our own)
$50       Tables/Chairs for Beergarden (we can cut this out if we can pull this together with our own chairs/tables)
$150     Signage & Decorations (can be done for less)
$100     Flub ($50 entry fee + some slack)
TOTAL = $725

On a per family basis, this works out to...

# Families Cost/Family

6                            $121
7                        $104
8                            $91
9                          $81
10                             $73

I left out T-shirts. Make your own t-shirts are actually pretty expensive when you factor in the ink, shirts, labor, etc. We can use something like customink.com and get better quality stuff that doesn't get trashed after you wash it. And the girls can pick out styles of shirts that are more fashionable/etc. The cost per shirt will be $20-25/shirt. Not required, but nice for anyone who wants one.

Thoughts on schedule...

There is a ton that has to happen before Saturday, but I'll leave that for another posting. Here's a high level summary of the things that need to happen just prior and at the chili fest...

Saturday - Preperation

> Purchase all the food stuff for the Chili and beer/booze

> Do as much preperation as possible (chopping vegetables, making spice packages, etc.)

> Picking up all the rental equipment

> Finalizing signage and decorations

Sunday - Chili Fest

> Back of the House (Kitchen) needs to be unpacked, set-up and ready to go by 7:00AM in order to be ready to begin cooking at 8AM (and have to be done and ready to serve by Noon). Last year, we used every minute - there's a lot to do.

> Front of the House (Service Area) can arrive later, but needs to have everything in order by 11:00AM, 11:30AM at the latest. This includes all the decorations, setting up the service area, getting bowls, spoons, etc. from the organizers, getting condiments ready, etc. Remember the "customers" will start showing up around 11:30AM and Chili service begins at Noon.

> Bar also needs to be ready to go at around 11:00AM/11:30AM. Beer garden is a great idea and will require some set-up time.

Committees:

It's probably a good idea for us to organize ourselves into groups and have 1-2 people step up and organize the key areas of the event:

Kitchen: Margaret & I will happily jump on this. We'll need a 2-3 more people involved in the kitchen to make it happen.

Chili Service: ???

Decorations/T-Shirts: ???

Bar: Jason is the right guy to chair this category.

Beer Garden Stuff

We have a 6' folding table that would be good for the Beer/ Chili Garden but no chairs...

stuff we used last year

2 tables

tent

2 lawn chairs

Starting to do list

1. register for the 2007Sausalito Chili Festival

2. beer sponsor (Jason is working on this)

3. chili related gear: pot, burner, utensils(?)

4. signage

5. decorations

6. t-shirts

7. on-site babysitters or even better off-site babysitters (?). The kids had fun last year. Maybe it would be mean to exclude the little rascals. We are the Red Hot Chili MOMMAS after all.

Here are my thoughts

I have a few thoughts of things that might work better this year: 1) Beer sponsor (I am working on this), 2) Get our same location and rope off the back area, put in some tables and chairs and call it a beer garden, 3) better signage - we should make our beer for bean offer clear 4) smaller cups (12oz so people don't think they are getting cheated) and 5) more chili so we don't run out!

More transparency

We know that the cost got a little out of hand last year and some people were surprised by the final number. I would suggest that this year we come up with a concrete up front number so that everyone knows what they are getting into.

As a start perhaps Margaret/ John can post what the total cost was last year as a starting point.