Thousands came, despite overcast skies and intermittent drizzle, despite the confusion related to a new
site, despite a day with precious little promise of sunshine. The periodic
short outbreaks of rain seemed to drive very few away at first, and still more
people kept coming. A public of hot sauce aficionados — drenched or dry under
umbrellas — just couldn’t stay away from the Sixth Annual Austin
Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival held at Central Park (38th & Lamar),
co-sponsored by Central Market, 107.1 KGSR-FM, Shiner Bock, and Guiltless
Gourmet. Bowls of hot sauce were everywhere. And chips… and more hot sauce.
Things were a little chaotic, long lines leading in every direction, but that
would have been worked out. Instead, it started pouring and continued pouring
through the middle of the afternoon. Still, people persevered, making their
best efforts at dipping soggy chips into rows of hot sauce practically consumed
by showers.
Planning to leave, I told Elizabeth Derczo, who produced the event for the
Chronicle, that if it kept raining for another half-hour, she should
cancel the event.
Fortunately the judges and preliminary judges were ensconced upstairs in the
Central Market Cooking School, away from the rain. The judges were an
impressive group, including Mark Miller (Coyote Cafe), David Garrido
(Jeffrey’s), Cheryl and Bill Jamison (The Border Cookbook), Dave DeWitt
(Chile Pepper Magazine), Jay McCarthy (executive chef Central Market),
Park Kerr (The El Paso Chile Company’s Texas Border Cookbook) and
Ricardo Mu�oz, a well-respected Mexican chef. The group was led by Hot
Sauce mastermind, former Chronicle food editor, and still regular
contributor Robb Walsh, who won the 1996 James Beard Journalism Award for work
done for American Way magazine. The preliminary group of judges were
equally impressive but in more mysterious and mythic ways. Over 300 hot sauces
were entered and the judges were working their way through. Outside, the rain
was doing its best to squelch the chile heat.
I left. It was still raining a half-hour later, so Elizabeth told people it
was over. People stayed. They stayed until it stopped raining and then they
stayed some more. More people kept arriving, while some left. The judges picked
winners and remarkably, many people, despite the monsoon, had a good time.
The Chronicleis constant-
ly getting compliments on its web site (/). People
mention it to me from all over the country, and an old friend just used it to
track me down. In last month’s Texas Monthly our site was named one of
the 100 most interesting web sites in Texas. In the current issue of Wired
the Mister Smarty Pants column and archives receive some very kind words.
The website is run, parented, cajoled, and designed by the amazing Laxman Gani,
who on no budget and less sleep, manages to regularly make miracles. Mr. Smarty
Pants is, of course, R. U. Steinberg, whose old friend, and our old friend,
Mike Godwin, deserves congrats for making Texas Monthly‘s list of the 20
most impressive, intriguing and influential Texans of 1996. Godwin, one of the
old Daily Texan/CinemaTexas/Raul’s crowd, is staff counsel for the
Electronic Frontier Foundation and a legendary cyberspace free speech pioneer.
Talking about the past, next week marks our 15th anniversary. Take that as a
warning. n
This article appears in August 30 • 1996 and August 30 • 1996 (Cover).