IMPRESSIONS FROM THE 16th ANNUAL
NATIONAL FIERY-FOODS & BARBECUE SHOW          Page  2 of 2   Go to Page 1

MARCH 5-7, 2004         

Photos and story by Harald Zoschke 

Once again, it was show time in Albuquerque, and this is Part Two of my annual show photo essay. If you somehow missed Part One of our little tour de heat, you'll find it here.

While the last few Fiery-Foods & Barbecue Shows had a strange race for the very hottest extract product going, resulting in ridiculously hot two-digit million Scoville Units "sauces," the 2004 show brought back much of that good old chilehead spirit.

  Take Tom Pfleider of Pfleider Pfoods, for example. His business card even has "Head Pepper" as his title. Tom has a neurosurgical background, selling high-tech MRI equipment. An MRI scan on himself revealed a pepper in his brain, he  told me, swearing that this is true. Well, it got him into the pepper biz, and he calls his sauce "Schizophrenic Chipotle" because of its "multiple personalities." Check out his chipotle sauce I.V. - just don't try this at home! A great tasting sauce, by the way.

Hot enough for ya in that suit? Danny of Danny Cash Hot Sauce persuaded his cousin John to promote his sauces as "Pepperman." Wonder if he got paid cash for the job! Sorry for the pun, Johnny...  

 When it comes to chilehead stuff, CaJohn is one of the most innovative guys in this industry. Here, John presents three of his latest creations. From left to right (detail picture):

Fool your friends with an innocent looking drink, kicked up with "Frostbite," a clear hot sauce, made with colorless pepper extract. "Magma" is a hot sauce that looks clear, too. But when you turn the bottle upside down, dark pepper bubbles rise, just like in those 70's lava lamps. I'd be iffy to use that one on my food, but it sure looks interesting and should make a nice collector's item. "Hungarian Mustard" is a mustard spiced with Hungarian Wax peppers.   

 Another company with good chilehead (and chilehat) spirit was Casa Fiesta Foods, selling tasty hot sauces named Screaming Monkey and Hot Monkey Love. 

Owners Lynn Anderst and Gary Block
also served their own kind of chocolate
habaneros, 1 Dollar apiece. Nice idea!   

I  invested a buck and bought a choc hab for Jason, a visitor who happened to stop by their booth.

Witness Jason popping it in. Munching is believing. Next, watch this expression - sweat and a happy face, the so-called "pepper high." Finally, Jason couldn't help but fanning the flames with an ice cold Corona...

The four Stages of Happiness 

By the way, here's the politically correct attire for Fiery-Foods & Barbecue Show visitors 

The world of heat has no borders, and besides from South America and the Caribbean, products and exhibitors came from as far as Australia and New Zealand.

 Out of Oz... Flavours of Australia was at the show for the first time. Here's Jaqui and Sonya Slyer, presenting their line of relishes, barbecue sauces and dressings from the land down under. Are pepper plants growing upside down there?

Quite a trip also for the cool gang of New Zealand Natural Goods. Would you be surprised to hear that they even had a kiwi hot sauce?   

Not just the exhibitors came from around the globe - attendence was quite international as well.

 Between myself and CaJohn, that's chilehead Henning Petersen, visiting from Denmark. In his other life, he is a finance director for a high-tech company.

From left to right, here's our friends Mats, Patricia and little Carl Pettersson, visiting from Sweden. While Renate and I came in a couple days earlier, Mats and Pat had just arrived and had to fight their jet lag with fiery hot food. It worked for a while!   

We also met friendly fireseekers from nearly any state in the U.S., and quite a few from Canada as well. All united by the mighty chile.

 Remember when you were a kid and made a few bucks delivering the newspaper, or washing daddy's car? Check out this young man. Joseph helped to sell KidStuff Salsa at the Food Processors of New Mexico booth, and he sold that stuff like a pro! The salsa, made especially for kids, was developed by a  youngster, too: Stephanie Clark, daughter of Phil and Wanda, owners of Food Processors.

Actually, you're never too young to get into fiery-foods. Look at little Chanel - she could be the next Firegirl. But is it really recommended to raise your kid on "Liquid Stoopid"?   

The craziest thing happens when the clock strikes noon
on Saturday and Sunday. That's when the public hours
begin, and it resembles a stampede.

 As usual, I went upstairs to get a good hall view from the Show Lounge. Isle view below. This is unbelievable! Some exhibitors sold out of product as early as Saturday afternoon.

  Daniel showing off his Amateur Scovies award

Sometimes dreams come true, and this is what happened to Daniel Matson from Minnesota. At the 2004 Scovies, his salsa won First Place in the Amateur Division. Dan decided to join the Pros and had his product manufactured at a professional plant in his home state. To get it right from the start, he also invested in professional corporate ID design, reflected in the product label, his show booth, and even his business cards.

The products got a lot of attention, and Daniel has already signed up for the 2005 Fiery-Foods & Barbecue Show.

       The award-winning salsa

To help other amateurs, we asked Daniel to put together some advice, based on his experience. See his helpful hints (and my $0.05) here.

 Another promising newcomer who started with a great product line is Blake Sanders. His company, The Wandering Viking, makes Bahama Blonde, a delicious fruit-based habanero sauce and salsa, a 2004 Scovie Winner (Hot Sauce, Caribbean-Style) in the Pro Division. 

 Already a seasoned pro is Ray Lampe, better known to fiery-foods.com readers as "Dr. BBQ" (see Ask Dr. BBQ). It was his first Fiery-Foods & Barbecue Show, though, and he introduced his own "Dr. BBQ Brand" barbecue sauce and rub, which have helped countless barbecue teams to win contests.   

  Ray was also one of the Guest Chefs at the show. Sunday and Saturday afternoon, various cooking demos took place for the public, one of the show's highlights every year. Besides Dr. BBQ, this year's chef lineup included Jim Heywood (Culinary Institute of America,) Fast Eddy (Cook Shack) and  Scott Campbell (The Chef's Table Catering Company)

And here's how Ray spent all
the money he made at the show - buying
coozies from SheDevil Rachel (tasty
Devil Pickles by Roxtar Gourmet). 

Well, there you have it. So sorry that I couldn't cover everything and everyone. With so many products and booths, this had to be a snapshot of those things that caught my eye (and my tastebuds.)

If you weren't there, I hope you got some idea what was going on at the hottest food show on earth. Until next year! I've already marked my calendar: March 11-13, 2005, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 --Harald

PS - Missed Page 1? Oh no! Click here to catch up!   (and here's my previous show report)