The Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show is so all-encompassing and so overwhelming to us that it's hard to know where to begin a report like this.  Just to give you an idea, 94-Rock gave away 14,000 containers of Blue Bell ice cream as a cool-down to attendees!  The live video streams produced by James Beck of EatMoreHeat.com were a huge success and you can see them here at SpicyRV.com.  They are just the tip of the craziness iceberg.  As you can see by the photo, I was "arrested" by the German Chile Police for the attempted theft of an inflatable chile.  This was staged by Marco Del Freo, who came all the way from Parma, Italy to visit the show.  Total attendance exceeded 15,000 and the media coverage, arranged by Kelly Hunter of Shiroma Southwest, was spectacular.  On Friday, I did six video interviews!  The show advertising, produced by Wayne and Jackson of Wayne Scheiner & Co., my long-time agency, was obviously very effective. You can watch the TV spot for the show here (be sure to scroll down a little).  Lois, our managing editor is working on two photo-reports from the show, so expect to see them within the next week or two.

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Apparently because of all my work over the years on chile peppers, the Swedish government has made me a "Hero of Sweden."  You can watch an inspiring video of the announcement here.

 

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Our friend Scott Roberts reviews the latest chile pepper iPhone apps, here.

 

(Nice hair, Scott!)

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It's "Fiery Foods Show or Bust" as James Beck and his cohorts drive the Spicy RV from Houston to Albuquerque.  Spicy RV’s first Friday night we descended upon Chunky’s Burgers in San Antonio, Texas. It would be safe to say Chunky’s was catapulted to national fame when Adam Richman from The Travel Channel’s Man vs Food took up the Four Horsemen challenge. James Beck of EatMoreHeat had to throw his hat into the ring and see what this burger was all about.

 

The Four Horsemen burger is ludicrous....

The story continues here.

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We are celebrating the 98th anniversary of the invention of the Scoville Heat Scale in our show shirts this year.  These are the backs of the shirts.  The front features the show logo and the date and location of the show.  A big thanks to Lee Robinson for tracking down the only known image of Wilbur's face, which he found in a college yearbook.  And to art directory Lois Manno for the designs.  For the first time in history, you don't have to come to the show to get a shirt.  We have partnered with Chile Traditions to retail them by mail order.  All you have to do is go here to order them.  Have fun!

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Thanks to Jamie Faitelson, a.k.a. Chef Hymie Grandé, diabetics now can choose from a trio of barbecue sauces with no high fructose corn syrup or processed sugars. The sauces are vegan friendly and all natural. It is also the first BBQ sauce to carry the American Diabetes Association mark on the bottle’s label, meaning it meets the ADA specifications.  Chef Hymie Grandé also donates a portion of the proceeds from every bottle sold to the American Diabetes Association. “Chef Hymie Grandé sauces are a unique blend of everything you would want in a barbeque sauce or rub. They taste great, but don’t have all the processed sugar or high fructose corn syrup that nutritionists everywhere are in agreement is so bad for you, says Faitelson.  He adds, “We use agave syrup as a natural sweetener—although it is much more expensive—but isn’t a healthier sauce with great taste worth it?”

You can order the barbecue sauce online here. If you live near New Jersey, the website has a list of stores that carry the sauces as well.

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I have just returned from a mind-boggling visit to Garden Fresh Gourmet's processing plants in Ferndale, Michigan. The image above is the programming screen for their ultra-high tech processor called HPP, or High Pressure Processing. In order to increase the shelf of their refrigerated fresh salsa and other deli delights, Jack Aronson installed this $3.5 million machine that kills every known bacterium, virus, protozoan, and mold, but not by heating. It's pressure that does it. A careful look at the screen will reveal that the pressure setpoint is 80,548 pounds per square inch, which is the approximate equivalent of being three miles under the sea. Unbelievably, the plastic packaging used withstands the pressure! This treatment extends the shelf life of their salsa to 70 days refrigerated, but Jack tells me that it's more like 100 days. 

About 12 years ago, Jack had a Mexican restaurant in Ferndale and he came as an attendee to the Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show and was inspired after tasting some fresh salsa. He started making fresh salsa and serving it to his customers and was soon supplying it to local supermarkets. Now Garden Fresh Gourmet is a $73 million dollar company and still growing at a furious pace. In fact, Jack has turned down acquisition offers from Nestle and Pepsico because he knows they would move his operation to other states and his 300 employees would be out of work. Jack still exhibits with us every year and enters the Scovie Awards. Garden Fresh has won more Scovies that any other company--a testament to high quality and hard work. For more information, go here.

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First, Harald Zoschke in Germany sent me the hilarious card at the left after asking me to model the 'Bhut Jolokia' tie.  This imagery caused a ruckus among my female friends, ranging from "OMG! That is one for the archives!" (Martha "Body Bueno" Doster), to "Are those your real boobs?" (Lois "Cave Dweller" Manno) to "There are so many things that are just wrong with this pic, Dave!" (Melanie "Cold Water" Yunk).  I replied, "But I love my new panties, my new nail color, and my implants."  Then I emailed the card to Pat Chapman, the King of Curries in England, and he sent the following report about our upcoming event, "The Pope of Peppers Meets the King of Curries," in London on May 16.

 

Reuters, London, 0922 GMT; 02-05/2010

Sales of Sports Illustrated soared as tens of thousands of extra copies were printed to cope with astonishing demand following the near exposure of America's latest sex icon, the Pope of Peppers.  The magazine owners admitted that they had never known anything like it, and that the cover design would be nominated for the 'Less is More' Award.  

Security was stepped up to hold back the crowds of adulating admirers who took to the Miami seas in boats of all shapes and sizes in the hope of catching sight of the new icon. Wearing his new papal uniform aboard a cruise ship of hot repute, the Pope revealed he has tied up a deal with the King of Curries in England, which will result in a visit there in May following his highly awaited tour of Italy.  

Asked how this would affect relationships with the Vatican, the Pope said "I do not have plans to visit my namesake.  But I hear Benedict will pay a visit to England after my own."  This was confirmed by the Vatican who were obliged to hastily plan their first papal visit to Britain since 1982. The media on both sides of the pond are buzzing with anticipation. Asked how cash-strapped UK would handle two popes in one year, the Bank of England expected to step up its quantative easing to produce the extra finance need to handle the visit. Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated "Printing money is easy.  Providing we don't run out of paper."   President Obama said a decision may be made by the end of his term. British security chiefs said measures will be put in place to handle the expected crowd. "We will bring back our troops from Afghanistan, if we have any left by then."   The palace declined to confirm whether royalty will attend, stating her majesty was not amused, but they did intimate that the King had been alerted.  

When quizzed, the King confirmed that negotiations were ongoing between the Albuquerque papal office and his own regal office in Haslemere, Surrey. They expected to announce a US/UK Fiery Food Pope-meets-King summit soon. "A lot depends on what happens when DeWitt removes that tie," he said. Happy Birthday Pappa.

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Editor's Note:  Our company, Sunbelt Shows, Inc. is joining forces with Bel Soley, Inc. to assist in rebuilding the Haitian economy.  I am urging my readers to contact Brian and render any assistance to this project that you can.

Brian Hays writes: I am the Chairman of Bel Soley, which is a company dedicated to development in Haiti by building for-profit enterprises for the sale of agricultural products domestically and for export. See www.belsoley.com. We have a U.S. distribution company based in Boston and a Haitian subsidiary that operates primarily in the southern part of the country (Les Cayes), with a country manager located in Port au Prince. [He and his family are OK.] We grow some of our own crops and buy other crops from small farmers. We started exporting mangos, breadfruit and hot peppers last year and were just ramping up our pepper exports when the earthquake hit. We are producing several thousand pounds of peppers a week now. Our hot peppers are habaneros from imported seed and the local hot pepper, a habanero variety called 'Piment Bouk'. Our target was to get to ship out 24,000 pounds per month by the end of the year. As you can imagine, all exports from the country have stopped for now. Port au Prince is the only real port of debarkation in Haiti. With the government destroyed and transportation over-burdened, we do not know when we can begin shipping again - although we are optimistic.
We are selling our crops locally, but the current regional market is questionable and we don't know if the market can absorb the volume. Domestic distribution beyond the immediate locale is doubtful. Furthermore, our business model is based on export income. So you can see the problem.

It has always been part of our business plan to make a good quality and truly uniquely Haitian pepper sauce.  All the pepper sauce sold in Haiti now is either Tabasco or Louisiana Hot Sauce. We know there is a good domestic market and with something different and of good quality, there should be an export market as well. But our plan was to move into pepper sauce later this year, after our fresh pepper export business was better established. Because of the earthquake, we would like to accelerate our move into the sauce business. By making sauce or mash from the peppers, we will be able to save our crops and also begin to provide edible foodstuffs to the domestic market, which is already showing signs of food shortages. As I mentioned, mangos, papayas, bananas and pineapples are readily available as a base and we can easily grow carrots. We have or can grow a range of more exotic tropical fruits as well, including passion fruit, soursop, sapote, acerola (Barbados Cherry), tamarind and more as flavorings.

Depending on the cost, we believe that we have adequate capital to set up the hot sauce operation, including bottling.We think we have found away to import equipment into the country (by by-passing Port au Prince). What we we don't have is information and expertise. Starting a business is difficult in the best of circumstances (I know, have started quite a few), but in this chaotic environment where we know next to nothing about the new business, the only way we can off-set the risk is with good advice and good partners.

* We need recommendations of experts in the business that can advise us on the sauce making process, the bottling process and any other practical, basic opertaions;
* We need recommendations of experts in food safety (we intend to meet all HACCP requirements - not only to allay fears about products from Haiti, but because it is the right way to do things);
* We need recommendations of reliable, honest equipment vendors who will provide the right equipment - not too much or too little - and collateral expertise in setting up and operations.
* We need recommendations of US (or EU) importers of pepper sauce (and fresh peppers too, since we will be back in that business).
* Any other ideas, suggestions or sources of information would be also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your time and willingness to help. We hope to turn a bad situation into something good. If we can get this done, we will have a few new, exotic pepper sauces from the fiery country of Haiti!

Brian

Brian J. Hays
Chairman, Bel Soley, Inc
703-421-9211 - home office
703-217-6251 - mobile

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