Goldsbury is the one who really popularized Pace Picante by expanding the product lines, modernizing the manufacturing process, and advertising creatively many remember the famous "get a rope" tagline. Knowing that product consistency is the key to brand loyalty, in Pace hired food scientist Dr. Lou Rasplicka as vice president of food technology; he would later earn the nickname "Dr. David Pace's original sauce compares to medium, or about 8 to 10 ppm.
Test plots were planted all over the contiguous states and Hawaii to grow the no-heat chile plants in areas far from other chile production, to ensure that cross-pollination could not occur. The variety is patented, with seeds kept in a secure vault so that periodic DNA testing can be performed against the seeds in rivals' salsas to make sure that no company has stolen the genetic blueprint.
For the mild version of the sauce, we use more of the no-heat chile but still get the flavor," says Rasplicka. In the early Eighties, Goldsbury wanted more variety in the product line. For a scientist dependent on proper lab method, the initial selection of the taste for Pace's mild, medium, and hot labels was exceptionally unscientific.
We got it amazingly close, but we did have to alter the batches slightly. As it turns out, humans can taste capsaicin in parts as small as 1 ppm; for some, the 4 ppm mild was a little too hot. We made it 3 ppm, and they could taste the difference. We had to do some slight alteration," says Rasplicka. As salsa grew to become America's No.
Pace was now competing in the market with thicker salsas, as well as a large number of upstart gourmet brands. It changed the flavor profile and made it less spicy and a little sweeter.
When Pace www. Rasplicka stayed on with Campbell's for several years, but had no desire to follow the company to its new plant in Paris, Texas, when it shut down operations in San Antonio.
He didn't have a piece of the Campbell's deal, but "all of the Pace employees ended up coming out good on the deal. Although Goldsbury is a very wealthy man now, he is also credited with making the largest single donation ever made to culinary education. It took him four years to convince the Culinary Institute of America that San Antonio was the perfect spot for the Center for Foods of the Americas www.
The best of those students will be given full scholarships to attend the Culinary Institute's Hyde Park, N. The competitors in this year's 18th annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival can only dream of the luxury of having a Dr.
Pepper, liquid gas chromatography, food science labs, and chiles full of flavor with no heat, but all of them, somewhere in the backs of their minds, see winning the contest as a launching pad for commercial success.
It's the same dream that propelled Dave Pace in those early years when he wanted to be the Heinz of salsa and the dream that made Kit Goldsbury into a billionaire. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press.
Support the Chronicle. Pace pursued his new idea passionately and urgently. Starting with a basic recipe, he dove into experimentation with different blends of ingredients, testing the results on his golf buddies, before settling on the winning mix of jalapenos, onions and tomatoes. He named his creation "picante" sauce - Spanish for "piquant," meaning "flavorful" or "spicy.
While continuing to sell some 58 assorted condiments, he tinkered with his picante sauce formula for the better part of a decade, determined to find just the right cooking time - enough to seal in the flavor and preserve it, but not a second longer.
As Pace perfected the recipe that is still used today, demand grew, leading him to the bold decision to drop the rest of the company's line to focus on Pace Picante sauce. He shared his passion for picante sauce with zeal, visiting restaurants with a jar in hand, using it during his meal, and leaving it behind on the table for other patrons and the restaurant owners to try when he was done!
Right from the start, David Pace realized that fresh ingredients would set Pace Picante sauce apart. He even tried growing his own jalapenos - but the local deer were so fond of his peppers that he had a hard time maintaining a supply. Undeterred, he began buying his peppers directly from local farmers.
Later, the company began following the "jalapeno trail," buying from different regions according to the harvest season, to find the best and freshest peppers throughout the year. In recent years, the Pace brand has developed its own pepper seeds to ensure the perfect flavor and texture, and today uses more than 25 million pounds of fresh jalapenos every year - more than anyone else in the country.
David Pace didn't just make picante sauce - he loved it, and used it in a variety of ways. He felt picante sauce was at home flavoring many different dishes, serving it with eggs, chicken, and burgers. He was even rumored to mix a spoonful into his morning coffee! Though salsa with Java didn't catch on, a growing number of fans heartily agreed with David Pace about picante sauce's versatility.
The company began receiving letters from customers who discovered Pace products in Texas, moved north, and missed their picante sauce. As David Pace retired in , other family members not only kept all those fan letters, but shared them with grocers and were able to bring the flavors of the Southwest to stores and kitchens all across the country. In , to accommodate different palates, the company introduced "mild" and "hot" varieties to accompany the original "medium" Picante sauce.
This offered consumers a choice between the smoother and more finely blended picante sauce versus the thicker salsa with large chunks of crisp vegetables. The growing demand for Picante sauce and salsa reflected the changing demographics of America as well as the increasing popularity of Mexican restaurants and cuisine. Pace's vision was coming to life, as the Picante sauce he created became a leader in the Mexican category - tantalizing consumers' taste buds across the country.
The sauce of the Southwest was growing in recognition as a versatile, flavor enhancer that was spicing up meals in restaurants nationwide. As consumers tasted these Mexican sauces, they wanted to bring them home - and did, in record numbers.
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