It started with potluck, turned a corner with an insomniac e-mail from an intern, and ended in tastebud heaven.

Weekly intern Daniel DeCamp brought along his chili to a potluck at my place. It was godly. I pulled him aside and asked him to start bringing it by on deadline night, soliciting feedback and honing his recipe. I had sudden aspirations for an amateur entry at last week’s Carmel Valley Chamber Annual Great Bowls of Fire Chili Cook-off.

DeCamp is prone to firing off essays in the middle of the night, including recent pieces on Spanish food versus Mexican and the problem with dogmatic thinking. One about chili went like this: “A powerful godlike voice spoke to me. It said: YE SHALL MAKE CHILI!”

We found some carefully sourced goat to differentiate ourselves from the flocks of beef and pork, and the name Oh My Goat quickly fit with the divine inspiration his e-mail provided.

When the day drew near, the Weekly angels sprung to action, reconnoitering nun costumes, candles and signs. We painted a “confession/critique” booth. We crafted the 10 Chili-mandments. Number Seven: Thou shall not steal the OMG recipe. Just ask for it.

Hence DeCamp’s recipe – good enough for saints but only enough for a runner-up in Carmel Valley (table placement is everything) – is now up on the Special Edible blog, as is the recipe from pro winner, Marinus Sous Chef Anna Steege.

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Huge news for the Marina-CSUMB scene: Otter’s Den (883-1227) is back, and was booming for opening night, which starred the Jägermeister girls and Mayor Bruce Delgado (in no particular order). Weekly special agent Corby Anderson reports: “Gone are the dingy ceiling lights, the predictable posters, and the placards advertising a spelunking experience several hundred miles away, and in their places are big TV monitors that seemed as big as Cadillac hoods, a mesmerizing LED-lit back bar and drop-down accent lights.”

Check out his photos and clever commentary on the blog.

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If there’s one word to describe the second edition of Harvest Carmel, that’d be easy. Overwhelming.

Not in a bad way. No no no. But for its status as a little sibling to the Pebble Beach Food & Wine, this event threw out way more activities per capita, from WAR’s still-in-my-head “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” to bike-powered blenders to barbecue seminars to a Gin Blossoms Sunday show that was so intimate I saw at least a dozen fans hug the dude.

Guests need both days (and two stomachs, and two livers) to get to the endless wineries and chefs – and more to figure out how to get the complete experience, says David Bernahl, cofounder of event parent Coastal Luxury Management: “It’s like it takes people a couple of years to figure out how to enjoy everything.”

CLM restaurants director Gary Obligacion was all grins repping 1833 Restaurant, which remains under construction for at least another month in the Stokes Adobe. He served a supreme summertime melon gazpacho that bodes well for a seasonal menu that’s rounding into shape as they survive code checks in downtown Monterey.

The coolest component I saw, though, was the electric pink cactus pear cocktails Salinas’ own Andy Boy was doing by the huge stage. A.B. reps distributed ribbons to bump up breast cancer awareness and told me their ag giant has donated $1 million to date and continues to plop pink emblems on their boxes.

Equally inspiring: word from Dory Ford that his Aqua Terra sustainable/healthy school lunch program is expanding beyond Stevenson Lower to Chartwell and All Saints. Better yet, he says he’s meeting with lawmakers to discuss subsidizing the meals so more than private and charter kids can chow down.

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The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s got a great catch – and a big fish – in Cindy Pawlcyn, who’s being brought in to run its critically important food operations.

She’s been nominated for James Beard’s best chef in the state twice; one of her cookbooks even pulled in a Beard award. She’s founded Mustards Grill and Go Fish and boosted Fog City Diner, Bix, Roti, Betelnut, Buckeye Roadhouse and Rio Grill. She has long pioneered sustainability. In short, she’s all that and a bag of fish ‘n’ chips.

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Oct. 9’s Green Festival – which was poised, among other things, to align Ted Walter, Dory Ford, Brandon Miller, Tony Baker and Cal Stamenov for an unprecedented sustainable foods panel – is postponed… The Grill at Ryan Ranch is closing on Sept. 30, after failing to agree on a lease with the landlord. No plans for an immediate redux, according to owner Lee Connally, but he wants to have something in the hopper come 2011… In October, Peter B’s Oktoberfest’s on tap ($5.50/16 oz.; $6.50/20 oz.), as are bockwurst ($7), wiener schnitzel ($10), and kasseler rippchen ($10)… Habanero Grill & Cantina (375-3700) is open in the old Croce’s in downtown Monterey, next to sibling restaurant Bellagio Pizzeria (643-9500) – homemade tortillas and hot sauce, top tequilas, saucy moles, empanadas, ya entiendes… Like the Bible says, “And if his offering be a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord.”