In January 2020 I assumed I had a lock on the annual Kedzie Inn chili cookoff, with a three-day smoked brisket braised with Cremeria La Ordena mole picoson. I spent a lot of time peering into the Dutch oven, building it, finessing it—no, caressing it—making sure the judges would drown in its smoldering, head-spinning complexity. So I […]
