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 cover photograph by John Anderson |
The truth is, we won because Austin had three times as many entries as San Antonio. In fact, we had so many entries that we didn't know what to do with all of them. What was intended to be a preliminary event, the Austin semi-finals before the big contest with San Antonio, became the main attraction. People were calling from all over the state, from New Mexico, from California. Everybody wanted to enter this monster hot sauce contest they heard about in Austin.
In 1990, we knew that salsas were hot, if you'll forgive the pun, but we had no idea how hot they were about to become. Our hot sauce contest took off because the public had become passionate about hot sauce and nowhere more so than in Austin, Texas. In the years that followed, we gave up on the inter-city rivalry and opened the contest up to hot sauces from anywhere in the world. And soon we were told that we were running the world's largest hot sauce contest .
And every year it gets bigger. At first, it was just a few spectators gathered under the trees. But as the contest grew, the lure of free hot sauce, free music and cold beer brought out bigger and bigger crowds, no matter how hot it was on the last Sunday in August. Finally, with attendance estimated at 10,000, we realized that we had outgrown the Travis County Farmer's Market.
This year, for the first time, we will set up our tents on the grounds of Central Park adjacent to Central Market at 38th & Lamar. Once again we expect The Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Contest to judge more than 300 hot sauces from all over North America. Once again, some of the most distinguished chefs and food authorities in the Southwest will be on hand to judge. And once again, what we had intended to be a little slow-pitch softball game of a salsa contest will be called the World Series of hot sauce. -- Robb Walsh
The festival takes place this Sunday, August 25th, from 12-5pm. The full schedule includes suggested parking locations.
The hot sauces of the Caribbean have been pleasing palates since before Columbus.
A few basic facts about Capsicum chinense.
