Tough Times Call for Tough Chefs:
TABASCO^® Offering $10,000 Reward
For Best Recipe that Won’t Break the Budget

Avery Island, LA — Professional chefs who can meet today’s tough economic challenges will have a fighting chance to win the top prize in the 2009 TABASCO^® Brand Hottest Chef Contest^® — and all it will take is one hot menu item that won’t break the budget.

McIlhenny Company, maker of world-famous TABASCO^® brand Pepper Sauce, is inviting professional chefs in the United States and Canada to create an original menu item using easily sourced, fresh ingredients. According to contest rules, qualifying entries must feature dishes that would be profitable for a restaurant to sell. Each entry must incorporate the cost of ingredients and the remainder of the price it commands would be profit — in another word, cake.

To qualify, all entries must be submitted online , or postmarked if submitting by mail, by July 17, 2009 and must include one or more of the following three flavors from the TABASCO^® Family of Flavors^®: Original TABASCO^® brand Pepper Sauce, TABASCO^® brand Green Jalapeño Pepper Sauce, or TABASCO^® brand Chipotle Pepper Sauce. Professional chefs, sous chefs and lead line cooks at restaurants and non-commercial foodservice establishments, as well as culinary students, are invited to enter the contest online. Enter online, get official contest rules, or call 1-888-HOT-DASH.

In addition to the professional prize, a special $2,500 prize will be given to the best, budget-friendly recipe submitted by a culinary student in the United States or Canada. The professional and student category winners will win cash and merchandise prizes and will be featured along with their winning recipes here on TABASCOfoodservice.com. Paul C.P. McIlhenny, President and CEO of McIlhenny Company and top New Orleans chefs will comprise the judging panel and select the professional and student winners on September 23, 2009.

Original TABASCO^® brand Pepper Sauce has been made on Avery Island, Louisiana for 141 years and is now labeled in 22 different languages and dialects and sold in over 160 countries and territories around the world.