Chili scenes of autumn

On Saturday at San Francisco's El Rio bar, where a giant cut-out of Carmen Miranda looks down on the back courtyard, Crowded Fire Theatre Company held a festive fundraising chili cook-off.Here are the competitors, who each contributed three chilis -- traditional, veggie and "anything goes":Impact TheatreFools FuryPlaywrights FoundationCrowded Fire (actually this is just Mollena Williams, but her chili had the event's best name)Here are Crowded Fire artistic directors (and newlyweds) Kent Nicholson and Cassie Beck:And here are the fine judges (Chloe Veltman of the SF Weekly, yours truly and Karen D'Souza of the San Jose Mercury News):The overall winning chili was Playwrights Foundation's traditional chili, "Fires in the Chili."Here are all the winners:It was a great event. Everyone had a marvelous time, and with luck, funds were raised to keep all these artists in business.