North Market

Spicy Product Makers Round Table – Part 2

February 27, 2014February 27, 2014 Buddah Bigfats, Born to Hula, CaJohn's, Chuck Evans, Ed Bucholtz, Flaming Joe, Flaming Joe's, Heartbreaking Dawns, High River Sauces, Jeremy Walsh, Joe Leicht, Johnny McLaughlin, Montezuma Brand, North Market, round table, Spicy Product Makers, Steve Seabury

Part 2 of our interview with some of the spicy product makers in our Chilehead community continues where we left off. You can see Part 1 HERE. We elevate to more serious questions in this part including new spicy trends and tips for people who want to get into this industry. Unfortunately, the drinking that began well before the interview kicked off is now starting to take it’s toll with some of our participants. As the discussion continues we begin to lose a few of our makers to outside influences. In the end, I think we touched on some great points, and hope it is well perceived to those that have put in the time to watch it.

Our round table existed of Jeremy Walsh from Bigfats Hot Sauce, Ed Bucholtz from Born to Hula Hot Sauce, Steve Seabury from High River Sauces, Chuck Evans from Montezuma Brand Sauces & Salsas, Johnny McLaughlin from Heartbreaking Dawns and Joe Leicht from Flaming Joe’s, Inc. A big thanks to them all for giving us the time to do this. As well as a huge thanks to CaJohn for letting us use his place and private meeting room to house it in.

If we are lucky enough, we will get to do this round table discussion again with some other great spicy product makers at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo next month and/or the Bowers Chile Festival in September. If you are a spicy product maker interested in doing one of these and want to get yourself a seat at the next one, please let me know. Thanks and enjoy part 2!

Chilehead Gatherings For Entertainment Purposes Only Interviews

Spicy Product Makers Round Table – Part 1

February 26, 2014February 27, 2014 Buddah 2014, North Market, round table, Spicy Product Makers

Whilst gathered at CaJohn’s Flavor & Fire Headquarters in Westerville, Ohio for the Fiery Food Festival Weekend at the North Market, I got a chance for a special interview. This special interview was with some of the faces in our great chilehead community. Since we had much fun over the years with the Bloggers Round Table, I thought it would be great to do a similar version with a select crew of our various award winning sauce makers. This is the 1st of 2 videos in which I get to ask some topical questions to this panel of hot sauce makers. To add to the discussion, there had been some drinking going on which only added to the conversation as you will soon find out. There is quite a bit of profanity, so please be aware of this before starting the video when surrounded by those easily offended. The discussion deteriorates pretty fast between part 1 and part 2 as you will soon find out as the liquor starts to kick in with some of the makers. Our round table existed of Jeremy Walsh from Bigfats Hot Sauce, Ed Bucholtz from Born to Hula Hot Sauce, Steve Seabury from High River Sauces, Chuck Evans from Montezuma Brand, Sauces & Salsas, Johnny McLaughlin from Heartbreaking Dawns and Joe Leicht from Flaming Joe’s, Inc. A big thanks to them all for giving us the time to do this. As well as a huge thanks to CaJohn for letting us use his place and private meeting room to house it in.

I will post part 2 tomorrow at 7pm est. If some of you other spicy product makers would like to do one of these at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo or perhaps at Bowers in September, I am sure we can do another one or two. The more the merrier since there are so many great spicy product makers out there. Enjoy the round table! There will be the occasional shaky camera, but it will be steady most of the time. Also, you will note another camera crew here and there. They are filming something very special for one of our own in the community, and I am not sure I am allowed to mention more than that at this time.

Chilehead Gatherings Events

2014 North Market Fiery Food Festival

February 11, 2014February 11, 2014 Buddah Cajohn, CaJohn's Open House, Columbus, Fiery Food Festival, North Market, Ohio

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.

Contests Events

2013 Fiery Foods Weekend – Race City Sauce Work’s Schweaty SamBalls Spicy Meatball Eating Contest

February 19, 2013February 19, 2013 Buddah 2013, Fiery Foods Weekend, Meatballs, North Market, race city sauce works, Samballs, Schweaty SamBalls

Now that is a spicy meatball! Created by Chad Lowcock of Race City Sauce Works, Chad hoped to make a tasty, fiery and very messy challenge that people watching would not soon forget. I for one enjoyed both watching it and the flavor of the samball marinara he created for the meatball. It was flat out pleasing to my taste buds. I had 1 meatball and it was HUGE. It must have been very hard to eat 2 of those bad boys, plus a spicy yeast roll added for sopping up the sauce from the plate. Do check out the event…

Contests Events

2013 Fiery Foods Weekend – HeartBreaking Dawns’ Scorn Bread Challenge

February 18, 2013February 18, 2013 Buddah corn bread, Fiery Foods Weekend, Heartbreaking Dawns, Johnny McLaughlin, North Market, scorn bread, Scorn Bread Challenge, Steve Smallwood, The Machine

This is the 3rd Annual Scorn Bread Challenge. See how the Machine took the title in a very close battle in the world’s spiciest corn bread contest live from Columbus, Ohio’s North Market.

Chilehead Gatherings Events

2013 Fiery Food Weekend – Day 1 Pics

February 16, 2013February 19, 2013 Buddah Caohn, Fiery Food Weekend, North Market

The day started with the Great Spicy Chicken Salad Challenge in which we received 9 Vendor recipes and had roughly 25 judges. Congrats to Chad Lowcock for his Asian Fusion version and taking home the Angry Golden Cock trophy. From there came the amateur guacamole and hot sauce events in which yours truly was 1 of the judges. Then we moved onto the eating events – HBD’s Scorn Bread Challenge, Race City Sauce Works’ Schweaty Samballs & then finally the Jalapeno eating contest. I filmed the scorn bread and Samball contests to be seen sooner than later.

Chilehead Gatherings Events

2013 North Market Fiery Foods Weekend

February 10, 2013February 12, 2013 Buddah CaJohn North Market Columbus Ohio, Fiery Foods Weekend 2013, North Market, Open House, Spicy Chicken Salad Challenge

I have much much fun traveling to all these special shows, but I do not think I feel more at home than when I visit Columbus’ North Market for this show. Maybe it is how welcome I feel when I see my good friends CaJohn & Sue Hard in their element. Their show, their home and they really do bring the hospitality. Especially with their Annual Open House event. I know it isn’t just me they welcome with open arms, but everyone that comes into their spicy lair. They have treated me so much like a family over the years I get all warm and fuzzy when I see them and get a empty feeling in my belly when I leave. Of course the tummy issue could be a result of the fiery imbibing throughout my stay that has incinerated my innards. I am no Doctor, but I swear it is from leaving all my chilehead friends behind, not just the Hards, but I think I miss them the most.

Contests Events

The Great Spicy Chicken Salad Challenge

October 26, 2012October 26, 2012 Buddah 2013, Chicken Salad Challenge, North Market

Who can turn some chicken into something extraordinary? Chicken Salad is pretty much a leftover meal that we often overlook. If you go into some gourmet delis you can find some top notch chicken salads that will completely wow you. I have made some slight spicy variations over the years, and have not reached Nirvana yet. So I am going to sponsor the very 1st Spicy Chicken Salad Challenge at the Annual Fiery Food Show at the North Market in Columbus, Ohio for President’s Day Weekend. The kick here is that it will not be an amateur contest, it will be for the Vendors only who attend the show to sell their goods. These culinary whizs do not get to compete too often against each other outside of the ILIS Feast Your Eyes on This Spicy Cooking Challenge, which will be back for another year on March 6th, 2013 (FREE PLUG). Send me an email for contestant info if interested. Only 8-10 spots open.

Events