Those who regularly attend the annual Malibu Kiwanis Chili Cook-Off each year might not be aware of a secret and bitterly contested competition on display for the past few years. The Malibu Rugby Club (MRC) has been hosting a throw-down and the combatants emerge bruised and covered with tomato sauce every September.
This year’s winner of the Cook-Off, Peter Tulaney, is a Pepperdine grad, co-owner of the Malibu Art Barn and a practicing family therapist. He is also a founding member of the Malibu Rugby Club and fellow team player with Alex Rylance, who won the Cook-Off in 2008.
Rylance plays on MRC with Tommy Cella – a rookie who entered a recipe in the contest this year—and Nick Betts, another chili chef. Perhaps you begin to see a pattern here.
Tulaney laughed when asked if the rugby team was on a subversive mission to corner the Chili Cook-Off Award market. And he denied any inter-squad blood lust between the players/chefs who rumble together several times a week.
“I entered my first Cook-Off just for fun back in 2006 (with a self-described ‘really meaty chili’),” Tulaney said. “But then I suggested that all of us in the club compete as a way to raise the profile of the club and raise some funds—which you always need in rugby.”
The Malibu Rugby Club was founded in 2006 by Rylance as a “touring club” that travels internationally to play. They have a tour of Argentina and Uruguay next year and will be meeting the survivors of the Uruguay National Rugby Team, whose flight crashed in the Andes in 1972 and whose 16 survivors were found 10 weeks later after having to resort to extreme methods to stay alive in an episode later called the Miracle of the Andes.
Because the game of rugby is rough on the fields on which it is played, the MRC has had difficulty locating a home turf and tends to play on ad hoc fields or on the fields of opposing teams throughout the Southland.
Rylance helped Tulaney with his entry into the Chili Cook-Off in 2007 and thought, “Hey, I could do this.” He entered his own British-style chili the next year and, despite friendly disdain on the part of Tulaney, was gratified to take home the top prize.
“It was very veggie-oriented,” Rylance said. “Pork, with lots of tomatoes that were hand-peeled. Over the next couple of years, a couple of our rugby mates tried their luck, but their chili fell short. I set a high standard.”
When asked if the cooking competition had adverse affects on team play, Rylance chuckled.
“Actually, our play is enhanced,” Rylance said. “Rugby is a sport that is very much about camaraderie. It brings us all together as a group.”
Tulaney said the player/chefs use shopping trips together to do some reconnaissance on each other’s secrets, all while creatively denigrating opposing ideas on the best types of meat or vegetables to use.
“The only thing we don’t do is cook together,” Tulaney said. “Alex makes too much of a mess.”
Tulaney and Rylance said that, while rugby players are intensely competitive, rugby traditionally represents a culture with a lot of community involvement. After the Malibu fires of 2008, the MRC joined together to help survivors.
They expect to continue using the annual chili contest as an opportunity to raise operating funds for the club and to introduce Malibuites to the joys of rugby, which is, Rylance insisted, a lot more like American football than soccer.
“Rugby players are smaller than football players but they’re more physically fit overall,” Rylance said. “It’s a sport with artistry.”
Another Malibu Rugby Club member contemplating a Chili Cook-Off run is Malibu author Robert Ahola, who has coached both the MRC team and Pepperdine University’s rugby team.
“Rugby players are naturally competitive no matter what they are pursuing or they wouldn’t play this crazy game,” Ahola said. “It’s no-holds-barred in rugby, which is what makes it so exciting. They can almost be a self-parody of super achievers, but it also shows big heart.”
Ahola confided that he might enter his secret chili recipe next year.
“It’s a killer vegetarian chili where you can’t even tell there’s no meat,” Ahola said.
Meanwhile, Tulaney is already planning next year’s recipe, which might feature ingredients made popular with his recently established WeHo Sausage & Catering Company. He’s playing his cards close to the chest though, so his teammates will be surprised.
Meanwhile, Rylance is developing his own secret recipe, the details of which he was not willing to discuss on any level.
“I have to win back my crown,” he said.