Five years ago, when I wrote an article in Chile Pepper magazine
calling Austin the Hot Sauce Capital of the World, salsa freaks in other cities
disagreed. The City of San Antonio mounted an official challenge. Their hot
sauce against ours,mano a mano in the hot Texas sun. And that’s how the
Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Contest was born.
There have been some changes in the intervening years. We got tired of
beating
San Antonio, so we opened the contest up to contestants from anywhere in the
world. And the word has spread. Every year the contest has gotten bigger. Every
year, more hot sauces are entered and more people attend. More restaurants came
to show off their hot and spicy foods, more vendors set up shop to sell hot and
spicy cookbooks, fresh peppers, hot sauces, and chile pepper memorabilia.
Last year, the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Contest judged 350 hot
sauces
from all over North America. What started out as a little grudge match with our
neighbors down
I-35 has turned into what is now, as far as we know, the
largest hot sauce contest in the world. But the biggest surprise is the people
who turn out, year after year, in the heat of an August afternoon to listen to
music, drink beer, and sample hot sauces. Last year, the crowd was estimated at
10,000.
This year, we have finally come to realize that this ain’t just a little hot
sauce competition anymore. Austinites swarm to the hot sauce festival not just
becaue of the judging, but because it is a celebration of something we all love
– hot food. So, in recognition of the event’s emerging status as one of the
year’s best parties and one of the nation’s top hot and spicy food
celebrations, we’ve changed the name this year to the Austin Chronicle
Hot Sauce Festival.
Anybody still want to argue about whether or not Austin is the Hot Sauce
Capital of the World?
This article appears in August 25 • 1995 and August 25 • 1995 (Cover).