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| Noe Alcala, Tino Guzman and Michael Vargas |
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| Original Las Vegas Hot Sauce girl with Chef Noe Alcala |
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| Judging the hot salsa contest at Hussong's Cantina |
Hussong’s Cantina at The Shoppes at Mandalay Place had a solution for those who didn’t have a great Valentine’s Day with the Burn a Hole in My Heart hot salsa contest held Tuesday night. Hussong’s own Executive Chef Noe Alcala went up again local chefs Tino Guzman and Michael Vargas to see who could create the hottest salsa.
The contest started off with the chefs and judges taking a shot of Patron Silver tequila and then the chefs went to work, creating their masterpiece from more than twenty available ingredients. The judges, including journalist E.C. Gladstone, Jay McCarthy from The Original Las Vegas Hot Sauce Company, Christian Struck and Rachel Seib from the soon to open Ri Ra Irish Pub and loyal Hussong’s customer Cortney Salazar, donned blindfolds as they set about tasting the entries. Pitchers of Hussong’s Original Margaritas were downed to help cool the heat and the judges marked down the scores and notes.
The judges shared that each salsa had unique tastes and varying degrees of hotness, but ultimately when the blind tasting scores were added up the winner was revealed to be Hussong’s Chef Noe, who added significant amounts of the spicy habanero chili peppers to bring the heat.
Chef Noe received his award, a gold fire hydrant, and everyone had another shot of tequila to celebrate.
Photo credit: Bryan Steffy
