Are you proud of the salsa you make in your restaurant? Then put your salsa recipe to the test and enter the 2026 el Restaurante Sassiest Salsa Contest sponsored by Sammic!
Entering the contest is easy, and the prizes make it worthwhile: The creator of the first place recipe will receive a Sammic Immersion Blender, the ultimate tool for mixing salsa. And the top three winners will get a cash prize: $750, $500 and $250, respectively. To top it off, all winning recipes will be featured in our Recipe of the Week email program and be published in the November/December edition of el Restaurante.
To enter the contest, click here and complete the form. The deadline is September 30, 2026. Your recipe must be an original creation — and remember that we’ll publish the winners, so don’t send us a recipe that you’re trying to keep secret. The recipes will be judged by experienced chefs, and the winners will be announced in October.
Last year’s winners exceeded expectations with their remarkable salsa creations.
“The varieties of salsa that can exist and be created with imagination were a surprise,” says Enrique Fleischmann, corporate chef at Sammic and one of the judges of the contest. “Smoky salsas, roasted salsas, some with pineapple and others with a dual color...chile peppers presented in a very special way, nuts and seeds, blends of aromas and textures within them...without a doubt, 2025 was a great edition of the Sassiest Salsa Competition.”
To learn more about last year’s winning salsas from Darryl Holliday of Simple Culinary Solutions, Kristofer Jubinville of Bonita Bay Club, and Alberto Arteaga of Pinchis Salsas, click here.
“We know how important great salsa is to a Mexican restaurant, and we are happy to continue supporting a contest that encourages chefs to create new salsa recipes,” says Neal Pearlman, sales director, North America, for Sammic. “And we know that Sammic immersion blenders are an essential tool for restaurants making their own salsa, so offering them as prizes for this contest made sense.”
Click here to go to the next article, Five Questions for Richard Sandoval