I Think I Can Do It
Reading last week’s Sacramento Bee Food Section inspired me to add a new item to my Life To Do List: be a salsa champion. Don’t scoff, I’m serious! Gwen Schoen featured Bruce Reynolds, a salsa maker whose salsa swept the awards at the California State Fair this summer. He won first place in both the tomato-based salsa category and the coveted best of division prize.
Reynolds says that while everyone has strong preferences about salsa, he tries to provide a product somewhere in the middle. Because people usually either love or hate cilantro (for the record, I love the stuff), he limits cilantro in his recipe. He also keeps the heat medium in order to appeal to the largest number of people.
“So I figure I make the best salsa in the state,” says the not-so-humble man from North Highlands. He and a friend, Sean Curler, developed their technique over years of practice. They make gallons of the sauce at a time, then water-bath can it and dole it out to the people they like best.
Like so many people who are good at what they do, Reynolds says he does not follow an exact recipe, but instead feels his way through making salsa. In order to achieve the perfect balance of flavors, he pays close attention to the ingredients he uses each time he prepares it. “So making salsa is a matter of taste rather than measuring.”
Currently, Reynolds works for the state legislature as a computer consultant, but his salsa experiments helped him realize how much he enjoys cooking. He is now enrolled in culinary school and finds that cooking helped him find his inner artist.
We have to give credit to Schoen for trying to get the perfect salsa recipe, but Reynolds wouldn’t give it up. He did offer one tip: “Although he won’t share his recipe, Reynolds says the key to his salsa is roasting all of the vegetables on a grill.” I have to remember that when I try to check salsa champion off my To Do List.
