History of Del Madero Salsa
I've spent about equal time during my life in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
Throughout my life I've always had a soft-spot for excellent mexican food in
all of its varied styles, and I learned to appreciate the subtle differences
between Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas style mexican food. Salsa is my true
passion, and I feel like I can identify a good mexican food restaurant with
one taste of their salsa. Sonoran-style mexican restaurants in southern Arizona
make my favorite salsa, and when I moved to Texas I started to develop cravings
for a classic sonoran-style salsa, which is about when I started creating my
own salsa in an effort to quench my salsa appetite.
After I figured out the secret to a good sonoran-style salsa, I started to
try different combinations of ingredients. I even grew my own chile and tomato
garden in my back yard in an effort to improve the flavor. Finally, I felt like
I was ready to let the rest of the world taste my creation.
Winning the Austin Hot Sauce Festival
In 2006, I woke up one Sunday morning and saw in the paper that the Austin's
Annual Hot Sauce Festival was happening that day. I seriously considered creating
a batch of salsa that morning, but realized that it was too late. I was really
bummed out that I missed the festival, so I put it on my calendar for the following
year... I wasn't going to miss it again.
So, in 2007 I prepared for the festival by expanding my chile and tomato garden
to include a wider variety of peppers. When the festival came around in August
I was prepared to show off my best salsa. I entered my salsa into the contest
with slim hopes of achieving anything (there were over 400 other salsa applicants
that year), and planned to have a great time enjoying all that the festival
had to offer. When they announce the winners, they always start with third place,
and announce first place last. After third place and second place had been announced,
I could tell my wife was getting bored and I almost got up to leave, but then
I heard my name "Logan Kunitz" announced for first place, and almost
fell over!!
The Austin Chronicle hosts the festival, so they took my picture and put it
in their paper the following week. You can see my picture in this article about
the festival: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A531585
Producing the Salsa for the Masses
It took me a few days to come to terms with the fact that I had just won one
of the largest hot sauce competitions in the world! I felt like I had won a
lot more than just a trophy that day - I won an opportunity to sell my salsa
to the masses, should I choose to take advantages of the name-recognition. That
is when I decided to learn what it would take to make my salsa on a much larger
scale. I partnered with Gourmet Resources, who helped me take my recipe and
bottle it on a large scale.
Coming Up With a Name
I know what you're thinking... how could a guy with a name like Kunitz know anything
about good mexican food. Well, that is what I figured people might think if
I named the salsa "Kunitz Salsa" or "Logan's Salsa". I knew
that I needed a name that would sound authentically Mexican, and a name that
people could remember. I struggled for a while, but eventually settled on "Del
Madero". What does it mean? Literally, I don't think it means anything...
the name is sort of an inside-story that you'll need to ask me about, and if
you're lucky I might just tell you; but don't get too excited because the story
really isn't as interesting as you might hope.
This is where my story stops for now, but believe me when I say that the story
of Del Madero Salsa is really just beginning...
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