[1] If there was one thing my dad Nate Moore was proud of, besides his family and his thick hair, it was his chili. It was an old family recipe, and everyone said it was the most delicious chili they had ever tastedâeveryone except my dadâs best friend, Matt Neil, whose family had supplied him with a chili legacy of his own.
[2] One summer day, my dad saw a post online about a chili competition in town. Dad was so sure he would win that he eagerly shared the news with Matt, who also entered the contest. Dad would finally prove that his recipe was the best of allâor so he thought.
[3] On the day of the competition, Dad and Matt were placed in outdoor cooking stations next to one another, each of them stirring the ingredients in their pots to anticipated perfection. Iâve got this in the bag, Dad thought. Then suddenly, Dad felt more crushed than the tomatoes in his chili. He couldnât find the cocoaâhis secret ingredient! What did he do with it? He didnât have time to go grab more, so he just had to carry on without it.
[4] Dad sweated it out and did his best. He and Matt kept cooking right up until the last second. And when it came time to announce the prize, the judges surprisingly declared Dad the winner of the contest. And without his prized cocoa! âI canât believe it!â he reportedly declared at the time.
[5] Dad would find out later that, when his back was turned, Matt had stolen the cocoa and added it to his own chiliâand then proceeded to lose the contest. Who knows? Maybe if Matt had stuck with his own recipe, he wouldnât have had to listen to my dad brag for the next year about his prized victory.
[6] I like to think my dadâs experience had some kind of an influence on me. After I learned about my dadâs famous cookoff, I decided to become a chef. My specialty is home cooking. Comfort food. The dishes that make you think of your upbringing. Incidentally, I always put cocoa powder in my chili. What can I say? Iâm my fatherâs daughter
