Pasta Sauce/Hot Sauce Maker Issues National Challenge

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Oct 28, 2011) - Home cooks as well as professional cooks who make a killer sauce, spread, salsa or dip can now become part of Dave Hirschkop's product line at Dave's Gourmet (www.davesgourmet.com) and earn up to $1 million in sales royalties.

"I know that somewhere someone is home-making their own sauce because they know it's better than anything they can get at the supermarket," said Hirschkop, whose sauces have won best in the industry awards two years running.

"I want that sauce. I want to manufacture it and bring it to people around the world," he said.

To enter Dave's Gourmet Recipe Challenge, submit your original recipe by Dec. 31, 2011 at www.davesgourmet.com. Here's how it works:

• From Jan. 1-4, 2012, Dave's team will test the recipes and choose semifinalists.
• Sauces will be judged in five categories: taste, appearance, creativity, consumer appeal and the recipe's ability to be mass-produced. (If Dave has to hand-cut bay leaves from trees found only on the southernmost tip of Italy in order to make your sauce, it might be hard to mass-produce.)
• The semifinalists will be taste-tested by a panel from Dave's Gourmet and finalists will be chosen and their owners notified Jan. 12-14.
• Jan. 15 to 17, hundreds of food professionals attending the Fancy Foods Show in San Francisco will sample the finalists and vote for their favorites.
• On Jan. 18, the winner or winners will be announced and notified.
• Within two weeks of being notified, winners must sign some paperwork and collect their advance of $2,000.
• The sauce will be produced for Dave's Gourmet's retailers and may have the winner's name on the label.
• The winner will receive royalties for six years, up to $1 million.

About Dave Hirschkop

Dave Hirschkop graduated from Boston University back in the 1980s and opened a mom-and-pop restaurant called Burrito Madness. It was there he began started experimenting with hot sauces and later moved into pasta sauces. He started Dave's Gourmet 18 years ago, and has products in major retailers including Safeway, Williams-Sonoma, Whole Foods and Costco.