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Chicago's Enrique Cortés, owner of Riques Regional Mexican Food in Chicago, garnered 1st place honors in el Restaurante Mexicano 2007 Sassiest Salsa Contest for his Salsa Quemada Riques —a traditional Mexican salsa made with RedPack Tomatoes, pasilla peppers, chiles de arbol, garlic, onion and a dash of cumin.
 Sponsors of the 2007 Sassiest Salsa Contest present the First Place Award to Enrique Cortes, owner of Riques Regional Mexican Restaurant. (Pictured left to right:) José Castro, vice president, International Sales, Foodservice Division, Olé Mexican Foods; David Halt, director of foodservice, Red Gold, makers of RedPack Tomatoes; Cortes; Brenda Russell, publisher, and Kathleen Furore, editor, el Restaurante Mexicano. |
Cortés accepted his $1,000 prize plus a 1st place plaque on May 19, at el Restaurante Mexicano's booth during the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show at McCormick Place, Chicago.
"We're thrilled to present Enrique with this award, which recognizes his creativity and his dedication to educating his customers about authentic, regional Mexican cuisine," Brenda Russell, publisher of el Restaurante Mexicano, said.
Other winners in the contest, sponsored by RedPack Tomatoes and Olé Mexican Foods, were George Constantinou, owner of Bogota Latin Bistro of Brooklyn, N.Y., who took second place for Bogota's Chipotle Tomato Salsa, and Diego Fernandez of Doña Rosa Bakery & Taqueria in Pasadena, Calif., who won third place for Doña Rosa's Salsa Poblana. They received plaques from el Restaurante Mexicano.
Noted Mexican food consultant and author James Peyton, owner of Jim Peyton's Lo Mexicano (lomexicano.com) and author of cookbooks including "Jim Peyton's New Cooking from Old Mexico," oversaw a panel of food professionals and consumers who judged the Sassiest Salsa entries.
"Most of the entrants showed a great deal of creativity and ingenuity. Some of their recipes were for all-purpose salsas, while others were more specialized in that they were intended to be served with specific foods," Peyton explained. "Some were created to be low in cost and easy to prepare, often with some reduction in quality. Others sought authenticity, often at a higher cost and more time-consuming preparation."
So what set the three winners apart? "Although they all used at least one canned ingredient, they compared favorably with top-quality salsas from Mexico's interior, made entirely of fresh ingredients. The top three were actually very, very close in the judging, with the winner having a slight edge in flavor and authenticity," Peyton explained.
The contest was open to restaurant and catering professionals nationwide. el Restaurante Mexicano (www.restmex.com) is a bimonthly, partially bilingual magazine for the Mexican and Latin foodservice industries. The magazine, founded in 1997 and published by Maiden Name Press, LLC of Forest Park, Ill., mails to more than 27,000 foodservice and catering professionals nationwide.
RedPack brand tomatoes come in an array of products for foodservice including crushed tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, whole tomatoes and fully prepared sauces. The brand is a product of Red Gold, Inc. (www.redgold.com), headquartered in Orestes, Ind.
Olé Mexican Foods (www.olemexicanfoods.com) manufactures a variety of corn and flour tortillas and chips designed specifically for use in the foodservice industry. The company, which also offers Hispanic cheeses, is based in Norcross, Ga.
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