2014 North Market Fiery Food Festival
My favorite spicy food festival is back and ready to delight all those that attend. Why is this event my favorite? It is not to knock all the other great shows out there for which there are quite a few, but there is something very intimate about this festival that the bigger shows can not possibly achieve. It all kicks off Friday the 14th at the CaJohn Flavor & Fire warehouse where John and Sue Hard have their annual Open House event. Food is spicily prepared by Chef Steve Lawrence for those that want to grab a bite, and you have the full arsenal of CaJohn’s condiments at your disposal to add a kick or enhance your food. Not that Chef Steve’s food ever needs any form of doctoring.
The Open House allows for the spicy product makers vending at the festival and the chileheads going to sample, to mingle with each other in this relaxed setting. “The Wall” in the warehouse is like leaving your footprint behind for others to see on future visits. People scrawl their signatures and companies’ names and logos, and sometimes messages of their presence in this dedication to the chilehead community. If you come to the Open House, you MUST grab a marker and add your name to the lengthy list of fiery food fans from days gone by. It is all part of the tour you get from the CaJohn factory guide who will answer all your questions except for the secrets of the trade that have won them more product individual awards than any company in the fiery food business.
Read more
Much like the Peppers at the Beach show, I will be sending in pics to someone to post on the thread here, as well as reporting the comings and goings of this little Festival in Columbus, Ohio. There is a nice handful of hot sauce, salsa and bbq sauce vendors. A lot of them are the same from the North Market hot sauce show from February that we debuted the website with. Nevertheless, seeing friends again is the reason I am taking the 6+ hour drive on a much traveled weekend. Thanks goes out to Joe and Linda Levinson of www.thehotzoneonline.com who are letting me stay once again under their roof for the weekend, and to CaJohn for letting them know about my financial dilemma. Thanks guys!
