[Note: this is a cross-post from the AdMob Engineering Blog.]

A couple of months back we held our 1st Annual AdMob Engineering Chili Cookoff. We all love good food at AdMob. We’re especially serious about all things spicy. A cookoff seemed like a good way for us to hang out in the park for an afternoon and give one team of engineers and/or product managers bragging rights over the superiority of their culinary creation.

We had a ton of fun, and in the voting following the event, we had a clear winner. The winning team had a well-crafted strategy. They knew that a sizable fraction of AdMob engineering was vegetarian, so they avoided meat in their recipe. They also appreciated that even though almost everyone in engineering claimed to like spicy food, that everyone’s spiciness threshold was different. Accordingly, they made two batches of their chili and provided a variety of sauces and fresh chilies so that folks could tune spiciness precisely to their taste. The winning team also used great ingredients, sought advice on their recipe from experienced veggie chili makers, and did a good job of managing the logistics of chili construction by careful division of labor and time management.

Not to destroy that which is uniquely artistic about cooking good food for friends, but a lot of what led to the winning team’s success was good product design and engineering. They designed their product to appeal to the widest possible audience. They consulted their peers for best practices. They didn’t skimp on the quality of their components. And they shipped their complicated product on time by planning ahead, splitting the work up into semi-independent chunks, and carefully coordinating the integration of their individual work early and often.

Now here’s the winning recipe as conceived of and prepared by Alvin, Anu, Josh, Prasana, and Sashi.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded, chopped
• 3 large jalapeño chilies, seeded, minced (about 4 1/2 tablespoons)
• 3 habanero chilis (for the spicy version only)
• 3 Choyote squashes
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes with added puree
• 3 cups water
• 2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed, drained
• 2 15-ounce cans kidney beans, rinsed, drained
• 2 cans of garbanzo beans
• 2 cans of lima beans
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnammon
• 1/2 to 1 bag of Morningstar Veggie Beef Crumbles

Preparation:

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots, red bell pepper, and jalapeños and sauté until onion and carrots are almost tender, about 8 minutes. Add tomatoes, 3 cups water, beans, veggie beef crumbles, white wine vinegar, garlic, and spices. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook, uncovered, until mixture thickens, stirring often, about 20 minutes. Ladle chili into bowls and serve.

–Kevin Scott, VP of Engineering