At the risk of maligning the genius of Cole Porter, we have a bone to pick with him. Maybe if he spent some time at the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival, he wouldn’t have carried on about being “too darn hot.” Tell that to the commercial bottlers, home cooks, and restaurant chefs who work weeks coming up with the prefect recipe, or the volunteers who risk sunburn to make the event happen, or the judges, demo chefs, and musicians who give up a sleepy Sunday to make the fest the largest of its kind in the world – and help the Central Texas Food Bank in their fight to end food insecurity.
The handwork and sweat start long before thousands of folks step through the gates of Fiesta Gardens. Our in-house hot sauce team (special events guru Dan Hardick, Marketing Director Sarah Wolf, Marketing Manager Karena Rogers, and Digital Coordinator Tamar Price) have gone out of their way to make sure fools keep coming back. Our creative team, Creative Director Jason Stout and graphic designer Zeke Barbaro, did their regular bang-up job of designing the look of the fest. And the rest of the Chronicle staff pitched in one way or another. It really is a family affair.
This year will bring a couple of changes. After a couple of years of scorching our tongues, we are eliminating the Super Hot Commercial Bottler category. And festival founder Robb Walsh will not be at his usual place at the head of the judges’ table. Now that I have inherited the position of head judge, I hope to do half as good a job as he did the first 25 years.
I’m looking forward to 25 more.
The 26th annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival takes place Sunday, Aug. 21, 11am-5pm, at Fiesta Gardens (2101 Jesse E. Segovia St.).
This article appears in August 19 • 2016.