Printer Friendly Version - Fern Tremblay Brings the Heat to Annual Chili Fest

Fern Tremblay is well known along shoreline construction sites as a civil engineer with Angus McDonald/Gary Sharpe, though in recent years he may have become even better known as the chef behind the award-winning InFerno Chili.

Winning recognition at the annual Chili Fest requires both an outstanding recipe and marketing savvy. If too few people at the Chili Fest try an entry’s chili, that entrant won’t get enough votes. So chili chef Fern Tremblay and the team he competes for, Angus MacDonald/Gary Sharpe, use both—and as a result, the team’s chili has been named a contest winner three times.

Fern’s recipe won top honors again this year, with second place going to Fresh Salt at Saybrook Point Inn & Spa and third place to The Monkey Farm. The Judge’s Choice Award went to the Old Saybrook Police Department. The Old Saybrook Chamber of Commerce organizes this annual event, which takes over Main Street for the better part of a Saturday.

What is the secret ingredient and five-spice mix that makes his chili stand out? That will remain a secret since there are plenty more Chili Fests to come—and Fern’s just a little bit competitive.

The base of the chili he cooks is his Aunt Rita’s sloppy-Joe-like recipe. It’s a recipe that filled the crockpot at summer family picnics when he was young. Aunt Rita’s crockpot creation filled the extended family’s hot dog buns at every picnic.

The challenge to make turn that base recipe into a chili winner was Fern’s own.

“I took that recipe as the base and then used my own spices to arrive at the seven-spice mixture of my slow-simmered InFerno chili,” Fern says. “We first entered it in the Chili Fest in 2009 and 2010, winning honorable mentions. Then in 2011 and 2012, we won in both years.”

Fern, who admits to watching a lot of shows on the Food Network, says he enjoys cooking and is more of an improvisational cook rather than one who follows recipes closely. Clearly in this contest, that free hand with ingredients and spices may be what distinguishes his entry.

“A lot of people try to guess what the secret ingredients and spices in the chili are,” Fern says—but they haven’t, and he’s not telling.

In 2013, a scheduling conflict meant he and the firm for which he works, Angus McDonald/Gary Sharpe Associates, didn’t enter the Chili Fest. But in 2014, they returned with another chili entry, this time winning third place.

How did his chili become the entry of engineering and surveying firm Angus McDonald/Gary Sharpe? It all began with a Friday lunch contest in which the firm’s employees each offered up their own home chili recipes for a blind taste test. Fern’s InFerno chili emerged from that first test with the most votes—and so began his and the firm’s legacy of Chili Fest honors.

“It’s always been a friendly competition among town businesses like the Monkey Farm, Walt’s, and Saybrook Hardware. It became a tradition to go down to Monkey Farm after the Chili Fest to await the results. Years that we won, the Monkey Farm’s proprietors, Deb and Laura, bought us a round to show they’re good sports,” says Fern.

When it’s time to assemble Angus McDonald/Gary Sharpe’s chili entry, the firm’s owner and his employees stand side by side in the kitchen of Cloud Nine Catering across the street from the office (Cloud Nine’s owner, Andrea Isaacs, is Angus McDonald, Jr.’s wife; she lets the firm’s employees prepare their chili entry there). To prepare 15 gallons of chili for the Chili Fest means using 50 pounds of meat and many hours spent chopping fresh onions and peppers, and readying the ingredients of the seven-spice blend.

Then, on Chili Fest day, the team’s goal is to work the crowd to get as many attendees as possible to the firm’s tent to try the chili. One year they posted flyers along Main Street with the GPS coordinates of the firm’s chili tent. Another year, they set up a surveyor’s transit device on the opposite side of Main Street—when Chili Fest attendees looked through the transit’s window, the Angus McDonald/Gary Sharpe firm’s tent was square in the middle of it. And last year, with piles of snow along Main Street, to attract attention the team sculpted snow couches and draped them with Mexican blankets.

To win Chili Fest honors requires a good recipe, but it also demands good sales and marketing. People have to sample your chili to be able to cast a vote favoring it.

“There have been some years where we’ve been close to running out,” says Fern.

Fern’s ties to the Angus MacDonald/Gary Sharpe firm began 16 years ago while he was still in college.

“When I was growing up, I loved building with Legos and loved science. Initially, I went to college for mechanical engineering, but I soon switched to civil engineering,” Fern says. “The advantage of civil engineering work is that I get to go out in the field to job sites and not just stay behind a desk. I always like outdoor stuff.”

The years 2015 and 2016 were momentous in the history of the firm. Late in 2015, the firm lost its patriarch and founder when Angus MacDonald, Sr., passed away at age 83.

“Even though he was retired, he would still stop by to chat. It was a real testament to how important he was to this community—at his memorial service at Saybrook Point Inn last year, it was standing room only,” recalled Fern.

And this year, 2016, marks the 50th year that the firm, now with Angus MacDonald, Jr., at the helm, has been in the business of providing civil engineering and surveying services all along the shoreline. Fern estimates that the firm has completed more than 3,000 jobs along the shoreline in its history.

To mark the firm’s 50th year, this year’s chili entry was named Golden InFerno chili—and golden it proved to be.