All drinks will be served alongside a variety of specialty chili cooked up by Pechanga’s restaurant chefs, each with a spin on the traditional chili dish. Blends Coffee will also serve non-alcoholic drinks, including a chili mango smoothie, a jalapeno cucumber refresher and a vanilla bean brew. The single-day event will feature over 100 craft beers from breweries, including Pizza Port, Flying Embers and Hangar 24. My mom, dad, uncles and relatives all cook, and it’s something that I love to do.”Ĭapacia, now the assistant executive chef, will help manage the 12th annual Microbrew Craft Beer and Chili Cook Off Festival Sunday, June 18, at Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula. “My passion was for cooking and it’s really in my blood.

“I just didn’t feel passion,” Capacia said in a recent phone interview. While he and several of his relatives enjoyed their time in the kitchen, he thought he’d find more success following the paths of his parents, but quickly realized something was missing. His mother was a nurse and his father was an electrical engineer. When chef Ronnel Capacia moved from Guam to Temecula as a teenager, becoming a cook wasn’t at the forefront of his mind.