Event of the Month

Event of the Month Culinary Imagination Takes the Prize at the Southwest Salsa Challenge

Barehandedly managing a big chunk of needled cholla cactus, Mexican chef Jose Molinar flashes a dare-me grin at the chief executive of Xerox/Arizona. Hamming like an on-stage magician, Molinar whips out a lighter and torches the cholla."Jeez, what are you doing?" asks Xerox's Jule Limoli. He's the host of the ninth annual Xerox Southwest Salsa Challenge in Phoenix, and right now he's not sure what he's gotten his company and 2,000 guests into. Needle-laced cholla salsa?

The needles incinerate to ash. Molinar rubs off the ash, slaps the green cholla chunk down on a chopping block, and picks up a chef's knife. He briskly dices the cactus and wipes it into a frying pan in which his cooking partner is sautéing onions, garlic, cilantro, and other secret salsa stuff.

Molinar hands Limoli a tortilla chip dripping with gravythick brown salsa. Limoli tries it. He likes it. Molinar hands him another salsa-drenched chip.The Xerox Southwest Salsa Challenge, touted as one of the largest salsa contests in the Southwest, is held every year in Phoenix to benefit Arizona's Hemophilia Association.

The parking lot at Aunt Chilada's, a Mexican restaurant at the Pointe-Hilton South Mountain, has been transformed into Mexican market-style rows of cooking booths established by more than two dozen professional and amateur salsa wizards.

According to challenge rules, entrants must make their salsas on site, beginning at 9 A.M. Also, only fresh ingredients can be used. After hours of judging by a special panel and tasting and balloting by the public, several awards are given in categories including the Best Hot Salsa, Best Use of Chiles, and Best Restaurant Salsa.

By 9:30 A.M., the paths between entrants' booths trap heavenly drifts of Southwest cooking aromas: freshly chopped cilantro, garlic, green and yellow onions, pungent chiles, and ripe tomatoes.

Molinar's cholla is only one of the day's many unusual ingredients. Others are grilled smoked tomatoes, grilled cantaloupe, diced mango, black beans, and fresh chunked pineapple.

And then there are the salsa names, promoted by posters fastened to each of the booths. El Salsa Inferno, High Mountain Salsa, Mingalicious Salsa, and The Salsa That Can't Be Xeroxed. Even Phoenix Suns' Dan Majerle has donated his SUNs-Rise Salsa to promote the event, as did Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson, with his Salsa por los Muchachos (nothing hot in it).

The fresh aromas mix with bright festive colors beaming from piñatas, salsa "team" flags, garlands of chiles and bougainvillea, balloons, and "try us, we're the best" banners.

One entrant, Minga Garcia, has used food dye on her homemade tortilla chips, and they're heaped in colorful mounds of green, turquoise, red, yellow, orange, and blue.

Public tasters, who have paid $5 to sample entries, arrive at 10 A.M. and stroll to each booth, where they are offered fresh salsa ladled onto golden tortilla chips.

Curiously, most of the tasters instantly are drawn to amateur chef Tim Long's booth, which promises aficionados the hottest salsa around.

And at the close of the day, it's Long, with his burning entry, who wins the most awards: People's Choice, Best Hot Salsa, Best Use of Chiles, and, justly, Best Name for a Salsa: Satan's Revenge. M

WHEN YOU GO

The 1994 Xerox Southwest Salsa Challenge will be held from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., Saturday, April 23 at Aunt Chilada's, Pointe-Hilton Squaw Peak in Phoenix. For more information about entering or attending the event, call Arizona's Hemophilia Association, (602) 266-8427.