1st Annual 'Hot Sauce Expo' Coming To Long Beach
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — It could get more than a little spicy in Long Beach this weekend.
Tabanero founder Kevin Peake and Abraham Blue Lieberman stopped by the KCAL9 studio Wednesday ahead of this year's Hot Sauce Expo 2015 at Rainbow Lagoon on July 11-12.
For the first time ever in California, nearly four dozen of the most popular hot sauce companies from around the U.S. will gather to meet the chefs, sample their sauces and purchase the best hot sauces available on the market.
Declared the "ingredient of the year" by Bon Appetit magazine, hot sauce has exploded across America into a $1.1 billion industry, with Irwindale sriracha sauce maker Huy Fong Foods selling 20 million bottles in a single year.
The Hot Sauce Expo hand-picked 45 companies out of more than 100 submissions from purveyors around the states, including Los Angeles-based El Machete, Ghost Scream Hot Sauce in San Clemente, Pasadena's Jabberwocky Foods, and several others from the Southland.
Tickets to the Hot Sauce Expo cost as low as $10, but for VIP wannabes willing to plunk down $100 can test their tongue tolerance in an "exclusive area", where they can enjoy complimentary cocktail tastings, food pairing samples and their favorite craft beers.
Click here for more info on Hot Sauce Expo 2015.
