OK, so it would be presumptuous to really “review” an event that we put on, so this is more of a summary than a ranking.

Thanks to all who came out to the 7th annual Fiery Foods Festival at the North Market last weekend.

Kudos if you participated in our salsa, hot sauce, chili, hot pepper eating or wing eating contests. Extra kudos if you supported any of our fabulous merchants and fiery foods vendors by making a purchase.

Let’s give a big “cheers!” to those vendors who ventured in from far and near to sample their piquant concoctions for you. Blaze Gourmet trekked down I-71 from Cleveland; Crazy Uncle Jester travelled I-70 from Dayton; Heartbreaking Dawns drove in from Rosendale New York; Tracy from Jac’s Tailgaters wins the “furthest travelled” award for coming up from West Monroe, Louisiana; Mild to Wild crossed the state line from Indiana to join us; Patter Fam Sauces came from Wheelersburg, Ohio; Montezuma Brand, Urban Chefs and Ronz Sauces are all from Columbus, Ohio. We were thrilled to host them all and to make some new acquaintances who we hope to see back soon for other events (mark your calendars for Memorial Day weekend for a two day Grillmasters Festival).

During the course of the day many a prize was awarded. We commenced the day with a homemade salsa contest. Sandi Kraft from Portage, Indiana took first prize with her spicy, sweet salsa. Donna Potts of Reynoldsburg claimed second place with her “poor man’s caviar with mango” salsa. Thanks to additional participants Shanda Behrens, Jessica Drusbacky, Al Goldenberg, Betty Huddleston, Bill Kraft, Tony Kosloski, Tim Nelson, Carson Quillin, Nancy Radke, Philip Radke, Steve Rosegger (with help from Albe Harlow), Senta Rousseau, Paul Waltermeyer and Todd Voss.

Always a fan favorite, the Chef Chili Challenge maxed out its registration this year with entries from fifteen fabulous local restaurants. Joining the competition were Alana’s Food + Wine, Basi Italia, Burgundy Room, Café Corner, Candy Shack, Chef Butcher’s Creole Kitchen, Holy Smoke BBQ, Latitude 41, Marcella’s Polaris, North Market Poultry and Game (2009 Champs), O’Shaughnessy’s Public House, Pastaria, Two Caterers and Chefs Ken Smith and Michael Ciotola (formerly of Luce and LaScala). Retired Chef Michael Ciotola took second and proved that his culinary skills are still sharp with his Pork, White Bean and Green Chili Soup topped with Cilantro Lime Cream. Newcomer Reymundo Rico from Café Corner in Harrison West (recently under new ownership) won the boxing robe and was declared North Market Chili Champ 2010 for his Chili Pazoli. The mixture of slow-roasted, garlic-rubbed pork, cilantro, red pepper, sea salt and pork sausage basked in a “pazoli sauce” made with guajilla and ancho chilies, roasted purple tomatoes, roasted garlic, red onions, hominy, kidney and black beans was divine. As if that was not enough the dish was served with a side cup of spicy Mexican Hot Chocolate complete with homemade marshmallows. Kathleen Day, the new owner of Café Corner is carrying on the Nowak brothers tradition of creative cuisine nicely!

Then there were the plucky participants in the Amateur Chili Cook-off. In second place was former participant (and second place winner) Everett Smith with his Steak Poblano Chili. First prize went to Valerie Belt with her “Nacho Mama’s Chili”. Her winning dish included Baltika Beer from Grapes of Mirth, Jose Madrid’s salsa verde plus CaJohn’s chop house seasoning and salsa kicker. Thanks to Bethann Cannell, Betty Huddleston, John Kark, Matt Latham, Tim Leigh (with Shawn Wilmoth), Wanda Faye Little, Rich & Cindy Terapak, Todd Voss, Donna Wenzel and Buzzy Zorich for playing along with us!

Next up we held the Amateur Hot Sauce Contest. Stephanie Wilt walked away with the main prize for her “Smoky Garlic with a Kick” sauce. And second place (and the accompanying prize) was congenially shared between David Huddleston for his “Hudd’s Fury” hot sauce and Jim Sulayman for his “Flytown Fire #1″ hot sauce. Thanks to Anand Merchant, Jonathan Passow, Alex Silbajoris and Todd Voss for their mouth-watering hot sauce entries as well.

There were 15 intrepid entries to the Hot Pepper Eating Contest. Each participant was given 10 huge jalapeno peppers with the goal of devouring them first, or at least the most in four minutes. What resulted was a tie between Seth (last name unknown) and Jeff Stevenson of Crazy Uncle Jester’s with seven consumed each. The tiebreaker was determined by a single pepper given to each to be eaten the fastest. It should not be surprising that the gentleman in the jester cap came away the victor in this battle.

Last, but far from least the Hot Wing Eating contest culminated the day’s events. Fifteen participants fought their way through CaJohn’s assault after assault of spicier and spicier wings and sauces. Only a few of wing gladiators bowed out and the finale was determined, after 6 previous rounds of two wings each, by a speed round of five wings fastest consumed. Jason (feel free to fill in a last name for me as note-taking was scarce at this point), a last-minute entry took home the title for this event.

I am still awaiting photos and promise to update this post once I have them. The full set of images will also be on the North Market Flickr page here soon. In the meantime feel free to send me photos or videos to add here!

Tags: Events, Fiery Foods Festival

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