Profiles in Courage ...
Fri., Aug. 23, 2002
When Larry Blanton was judged the grand prizewinner in the individual division of the 10th annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce contest in 2000, he was awarded a limited bottling of his ChileChaser salsa for private consumption only. Gail Calder of Austin Kitchens Inc. worked with Blanton to convert his award-winning homestyle recipe into a larger, shelf-stable formula, and his legion of friends and supporters reaped the rewards in delicious jars of salsa. Blanton returned to the contest in August 2001, garnering first place in both the Individual Red Sauce and Special Variety categories. He's back again this summer, but individual contest entrants needn't fear competition from the multiple award winner. This year, Blanton will appear as a commercial bottler, and his signature ChileChaser salsa -- in mild, medium, and hot varieties -- will be available for sampling at his very own booth.
Like the majority of people who enter the individual category competitions every August, Larry Blanton started making hot sauce for his family, friends, and co-workers, and his hobby developed into a passion. A project controls specialist for Honeywell, Blanton divides his time between Houston and Northern California, and he's got folks in both places addicted to his tasty brew. After his big win in Austin in 2000, Blanton began pursuing the idea of putting his sauce on the commercial market. That phase involved developing a business plan, having a graphic artist design a logo and labels, and finding someone to produce the sauce to his satisfaction. "Gail Calder has really been my guardian angel through this process," Blanton told me by phone from California recently. "She worked very hard to get the sauce just right." Now that he's got a product made to his specifications, the salsa champ is about to take a crash course in the marketing of boutique production food items.
Blanton's first foray into commercial sales came earlier this month at a specialty grocer in Kentfield, Calif., called Woodlands Market. The store initially ordered a few cases of his salsa, quickly sold out, and had to reorder when Blanton himself did an all-day in-store demo. "They don't have as big a selection of salsa varieties as say, Central Market, up in that area, but they do have some," Blanton explained. "The customers at the demo really seemed to like the flavor. It was very encouraging." With that success under his belt, Larry Blanton headed back to Texas last week to meet with Gail Calder and begin marketing calls on Austin-area grocery retailers. Before too long, he could take his place on local grocery store shelves alongside another former Chronicle Hot Sauce contest winner, chef John Randall, creator of Austin's Grand Prize Hot Sauce. Though both Larry Blanton and John Randall have put their winning sauces out on the commercial market, chef Randall's day job keeps him cooking, and he'll represent the Texas Chile Parlor in the restaurant division this weekend.
While Blanton is very enthusiastic about his new salsa enterprise, he doesn't expect to quit his day job anytime soon. He is determined, however, to get his new product into Austin stores, describing this salsa-crazed city as his "prime market location." For a preview sample of ChileChaser salsa, stop by Blanton's booth this Sunday, shake the master's hand, and see just how victory tastes.
-- Virginia B. Wood
By her reckoning, Deb Vogt of Georgetown has entered the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce contest every year since the beginning, 12 years ago. Although she's garnered a few honorable mentions, she hasn't quite managed to snag a trophy yet. Does she find the series of near misses discouraging? Seemingly, not in the least. She waxes enthusiastically about the good time she has each year. "I enter the contest for fun, and I enjoy getting the feedback on my hot sauce. But that's not the whole deal and I don't lose any sleep over whether I win or not. I always buy ristras, I get into the music, and you sure can't beat this event for unusual crowd-watching. And besides, you get a cool T-shirt."
When asked if she changed her recipe from year to year, Vogt said firmly, "Nope. This is my signature dish. I like it, my friends like it, and I keep hoping that one of these years, the judges are going to go for it, too."
For the past several years, Vogt has entered two variations of her sauce: "hot and hotter." In 1997, both versions earned honorable mentions. She admits that the moment of turning in her entry to the judges is the best part of contest, the pinnacle of anticipation.
Vogt first got into hot sauce when her family moved to New Mexico when she was a teenager. The love affair didn't happen gradually, either. "From the first taste, I knew I was a total Mexican food junkie. I just loved the hot sauce, and I still do. I like to think I can cook, and I work on learning new things all the time. Mexican food is my specialty."
Vogt has lived in the Austin area since 1978; until recently, she worked as a project manager for Dell Computer. Currently, she's taking some time off to, as she puts it, "seek out new and unusual ways to have F-U-N!"
When I asked Vogt if she were entering her salsa in this year's contest, she answered, "Well, of course!" in a shocked tone, as if any other course of action were quite unthinkable.
You go, girl. There's more than one way of being a hot sauce queen; demonstrating such tenacity, spirit, and confidence seems like a winning combination to me. -- MM Pack
