Fiery Food Challenge

January 29-31, 2021
Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday

2020 FFC Winners

Spicy Food Productions is pleased to welcome back “CaJohn” Hard as the “Senior Product Consultant” in the Fiery Food Challenge.

CaJohn’s product knowledge takes the FFC to a new level of excellence. CaJohn and the ZestFest team ensures that all products entered in the Challenge have been placed in the correct category and follow the guidelines of the competition’s rules.

CaJohn has won over 400 awards in National, International and Regional competitions; 79 Golden Chiles and over 100 other Fiery Food Challenge awards.

Have a question for CaJohn about your product? Email him at cajohn@cajohns.com.

The Fiery Food Challenge kicks off ZestFest 2021 and is the longest running, most prestigious competition of zesty products in the industry.

Produced by Spicy Food Productions and presided over by independent VIP judges, the Fiery Food Challenge runs Monday through Wednesday, with an Awards Dinner on Friday night.

Winners of the Fiery Food Challenge receive the coveted Golden Chile award and 1st place ribbons. Runners-up win 2nd and 3rd place ribbons, and all winners receive 1,000 award stickers.

The Fiery Food Challenge is a competition that invites hot, “really hot”, spicy and zesty foods and fiery food-related products to be submitted by those folks vying for the prestigious Golden Chile Award – one of only two “fiery” food awards that stand out in the United States.

The tasting and the judging are “blind” – a number system is used so judges don’t know whose products they’re tasting. To maintain the integrity of the contest, the people who tally the ballots do not know which company whose scores they have. This competition is for professional food products and products must be professionally packaged for resale.

Three days of judging take place. There are two sessions daily so the judges’ mouths do not get burned out at the end of the day! There are some really, really spicy products introduced! The zesty and the fiery are mixed up so there is a variety for those hot-mouthed – or asbestos-mouthed judges!

Judges gather to challenge their senses and evaluate entries in the following categories:

Consumer Ready (Open and serve)
Cook Off (Used in mixed or cooked application)
Marketing (Submitted on art board)
Best New Product (New to market after Feb, 2020)

The Golden Chile awards are presented on Friday night – and those winners will display their prizes on Saturday and Sunday so ZestFest 2021 attendees can sample the spice and zest that won the Golden Chile!

ZestFest attendees on Saturday can take part in the People’s Preference Awards – by doing their own taste tests and judging the hot, spicy and zesty salsas, sauces, dips, etc., for themselves. Those awards are announced Sunday morning.

For more info on the Fiery Food Challenge, contact Gregory Bagarozy (845) 661-3616 or email gregory@zestfest.net

2020 will be the 24th Fiery Food Challenge

Jul 21, 2019

The Fiery Food Challenge is a competition that invites hot, “really hot”, spicy and zesty foods and fiery food-related products to be submitted by those folks vying for the prestigious Golden Chile Award – one of only two “fiery” food awards that stand out in the...