SPAMTASTIC™ SPAMARAMA™

In the spring of 1984, my wholesale dessert business and catering company entered the seventh annual SPAMARAMA™ with a dish called SPAMBOLI™. Though we garnered only an honorable mention in the professional division, a local TV news crew did stop by our booth for a chat. CNN just happened to pick up that story, and for the next 24 hours, I was discussing the making of SPAMBOLI™ on international news. People called my mother from all over to tease her about my serendipitous TV appearance. "I thought you told us she was in Austin making fancy desserts and catering, but I saw her on the news talking about how to cook with ... SPAM®," my aunt cackled. Mother, who had never served SPAM® in our household a day in her life, was not amused.

That's SPAMARAMA™ for you: Austin's quintessential silly bar party where the unexpected, the ridiculous, and/or the disgusting are always likely to happen. You see, the pandemonious pork pattie party was the product of an earlier, simpler time when the city didn't take itself nearly so seriously as it does today. It's one of those events that defines a certain laid-back aspect of Austin, Texas, in the last quarter of the 20th century that seems to be disappearing. For the last 22 years, SPAMARAMA™ has been one of the traditional rites of spring, like Eeyore's Birthday Party or cutting class/calling in sick because the weather is beautiful and it's an obvious lake day.

Back when SPAMARAMA™ first started, there weren't too many upscale restaurants or CIA-trained chefs here in River City, but the cook-off always attracted a broad cross-section of amateur and professional cooks. Some guys, such as multiple SPAMARAMA™ award-winner John Myers (aka Chef SPAM®) always went the haute cuisine route with dishes such as SPAM® Oscar, SPAM® Cordon Bleu, or SPAM® Puffs. Other guys, like Kevin Rollins, took a completely different direction and perennially competed for the "Worst" dish, creating delicacies like SPAM-ALAMA™ Ding-Dongs and other questionable food items too disgusting to describe even in an alternative newspaper.

Now that Austin is changing so rapidly and SPAMARAMA™ founder and organizer David Arnsberger has moved to Boulder, the future of the event is unclear. The Potentate of Potted Pork Parties would like to see his creation last a few more years and "go out with a bang at 25 rather than a whimper at 22." With that in mind, he's secured a new charity partner and a new venue for the party this year and swears he'll keep coming back. Senior Chronicle writer (and former/current celebrity judge) Margaret Moser discussed the event with Dave Arnsberger and profiles him for us. And to put SPAMARAMA™ in some kind of historical perspective for newcomers who don't know it and old-timers who've forgotten some details, illustrator Jason Stout and I put together this cartoon timeline of memorable moments in SPAMHISTORY™.

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SPAMARAMA™ 2000 takes place on Saturday, April 1, from noon until 6pm at the Austin Music Hall. For more information, call 447-1605 or surf in at http://www.spamarama.com.