Mexican Food More Popular than Italian: Zagat

Ranchero vs. Marinara
People eat Mexican food more often than they do Italian food according to a recent Zagat survey.
54% of people say they eat Mexican food at least one to two times a week.
44% of people say they eat Italian food at least one to two times per week.
74% of people say they eat Mexican food for dinner.
64% say they eat Mexcian food at their local neighborhood restaurant.
17% say they eat Mexcican food at home.
What do they eat?
Based on the survey, the most popular Mexican food item is a beef taco made with a soft corn tortilla  sprinkled with cilantro. 
Survey says tacos are the most popular Mexican food, followed by enchiladas, chile relleno and fajitas.
Larry's Sauces has easy recipes for tacos, enchiladas, chile relleno right here on this Website.
Here is a link ot the Zagat survey.
http://blog.zagat.com/2013/04/mexican-food-survey-results-high-end-vs.html?zagatbuzzid=may13week1&utm_source=blog&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=blog20130501

WNYT.com - Chicken Mole Tacos with Apple Radish Slaw from Larry's Southwestern Sauces

Watch Larry make tacos with Dan Bazille on WNYT

 WNYT.com - Chicken Mole Tacos with Apple Radish Slaw from Larry's Southwestern Sauces

Buy Larry's Sauces at VeganCuts

Buy Larry's Southwestern Chipotle, Mole and Ranchero at

Vegan Cuts ONLINE.

Guido's Demo This Weekend

Larry will offer samples of chipotle taquitos from 11 to 3 at Guido's Fresh Marketplace in Great Barrington, MA and from 4 to 6 at Guido's in Pittsfield, MA on Sat, Oct. 20. Guido's was the first store to stock Larry's Sauces and it is always a pleasure going back to visit. Come visit the Berkshires and say, hola!

Larry' Sauces Demo at New Rochelle Shop Rite

Larry will demo his Southwestern Sauces at the Shop Rite in New Rochelle , NY Saturday, Oct 6th from 11 till 3. part of Gluten Free weekend. Please drop by for a sample.

Larry's Sauces at Niskayuna Coop.

Just restocked Larry's Chipotle, Mole and Ranchero at Niskayuna Coop in Niskayuna, NY. Nice place!

Also restocked Larry's Sauces at Shop Rite in Niskayuna and on Central Avenue in Albany.

Whole Foods Friends at Expo East

Bianca and Linda from Whole Foods Market in Fairfax, VA stop by Larry's booth to sample Larry's Chipotle, Mole and Ranchero Sauces at the Natural Foods Expo in Baltimore. 

Larry Exhibits at Natural Products Expo East

Larry's Southwestern Sauces will exhibit at the Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore September 20, 21, and 22nd. Drop by booth #8311 to sample Larry's Chipotle, Mole and Ranchero Sauces.

Larry's Sauces are authentic, vegetarian, gluten free cooking sauces to make tacos, chili, huevos rancheros, chicken mole, enchiladas or to simmer with your favorite meats and seafood.

See you there!

Mexican Food Most Popular Ethnic Food in USA

Mexican/Hispanic foods are by far the most popular specialty foods on grocery store shelves today according to the National Association of the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT).

Food lovers and home cooks spent more than $1.6 billion on Mexican/Hispanic foods out of a total of nearly $3 billion spent on ethnic foods all together, far outpacing Asian food, Indian food and all the rest combined.

Sales of Mexican/Hispanic foods are expected to grow by two percent annually over the next five years.

Authentic flavors, all natural ingredients, and artisanal products are the key characteristics people look for in ethnic foods they buy.

At-home ethnic cooking is popular and growing. 87% of families say they are using ethnic products for cooking restaurant meals at home.

Larry’s Southwestern Chipotle, Mole and Ranchero Sauces are all-natural, artisanal Mexican cooking sauces to cook easy authentic recipes for chili, tacos, enchiladas, huevos rancheros, chicken mole, rancheros rib steak, chipotle nachos or to simmer your favorite meats and seafood in. They are vegetarian, gluten free and easy to use. If you like Mexican food, you’ll love Larry’s Southwestern Sauces.

Times Union Magazine Story on Larry's Southwestern Sauces

Larry Sombke of Delmar is on a mission to get every family in the Northeast eating Southwestern cuisine a few times a week, or as much as they dine on Italian food like our beloved pizza.

Sombke cooked up recipes for ranchero, mole and chipotle sauce years ago while working in a natural foods restaurant. Two years ago, he launched his business, aptly named Larry’s Southwestern Sauces, and has already gained more followers then you can shake a maraca at.

How has he done it? With a few well-thought-out ingredients to his business plan: First, have a great product that fits a niche market; second, talk about your product at every available venue; third, always find new ways to connect with your customers.

Sombke’s Southwestern success story begins in his childhood. Growing up in Illinois, he and his family dined on chili as a staple during mealtime. “There’s a legacy of boyhood chili influences in me,” Sombke says. “We ate it all, from medium to spicy, and the whole time I was thinking about cooking and what I could do to improve it.”

In his 20s, as a chef in Missouri, Sombke perfected his recipes, which fall under the category of enchilada sauce. “It’s not salsa; salsa is a relish used for dipping,” Sombke says. “My sauces are for cooking. These are simmer sauces. It’s gluten-free, all-natural, ethnic, artisanal and a gourmet product. I got lucky hitting all the bases of what people are looking to buy for their families right now.”

After a broad and varied career including broadcast journalism, authoring cookbooks, public relations and teaching, Sombke knew it was time to pursue his own business. He got his toes wet with a couple other businesses that ultimately didn’t survive.

“I tried a sausage business that didn’t work out,” Sombke says. “There’s always been an entrepreneurial foodie side to me.”

Today, while he still works as a substitute teacher, the rest of his time is spent brainstorming, marketing, and keeping in touch with customers via newsletters, a website with recipes and even a cooking video on YouTube.

Enthusiastic, well-spoken and upbeat, Sombke makes it difficult not to get as excited about huevos rancheros as he shows people how easy it is to prepare them. “I want to show everyone how to make a fast, delicious meal using my sauces as marinades or toppings,” Sombke says. “They work with chicken, seafood, beef, you name it. The sauces can transform anything you have in your fridge into a fantastic dinner. I hear from my customers all the time about new ways they use (the sauces) to cook.”

Larry's Southwestern Sauces are gluten-free, all-natural, ethnic and artisanal

As barbeque season gets into full swing,Sombke says all three varieties — mole, chipotle and ranchero — make excellent basting sauces for anything you grill, right down to veggies. “Most barbeque sauces are catsup-based, but if you want catsup you can pour it out of a bottle onto your burger,” Sombke says. “Mine are hearty, flavorful grilling sauces, like what people in Colorado, Texas and California are eating.”

Larry’s Southwestern Sauces are now made and bottled at a large-scale kitchen in Rotterdam, but Sombke pays close attention to production. “You have to trust other people as your business gets larger, but also do your own quality control,” Sombke says. “You always have to be hands-on.”

Sombke is a frequent face at area farmers markets, but you can also find his sauces in 80 stores — from Price Chopper to area co-ops and natural food stores — across the Northeast and in several other states. His sauces were featured on Good Morning America as a 2012 “Super Bowl Party Essential,” another video clip you can find on his website.

One of Sombke’s talents is the ability to cook and talk animatedly at the same time. He seems destined to have become a specialty-foods business owner and a cooking teacher/coach. “Within the next 12 months my sauces will be sold in Texas and California stores,” Sombke says. “I love them, customers love them; I have a great product here. And I’m just getting started.”

To learn more about Larry’s Southwestern Sauces, visit here. You can check out Larry’s Sauces channel on YouTube here.

Photos by Krishna Hill/Life@Home

s Southwestern Sauces.com

Women's Health Night at Shop Rite, Niskayuna

 Shop Rite Niskayuna nutritionist Elicia and pharmacist Courtney with Larry's Southwestern Sauces at Lady's Night Out for Women's Health Week.

Larry was on hand to offer samples of his Southwestern Chicken Mole made with Larry's Southwestern Mole Sauce which is all natural, gluten-free, vegetarian and low in sugar and salt.

Thanks, Shop Rite Niskayuna!

Guido's Customers Love Larry's Southwestern Sauces

 Nice trio of smiling ladies at Larry's Chicken Mole tasting at Guido's Fresh Marketplace in Great Barrington, MA in April.

Guido's manager Liv says she eats Larry's Mole Sauce out of the jar with a spoon. Thanks Liv and thanks Guido's.

I will be back at Guido's later in May for Gluten Free Month. Stay tuned for details.

AMAZON.COM now sells Larry's Southwestern Sauces

Larry's Southwestern Chipotle, Mole and Ranchero Sauces are now available ONLINE at AMAZON.COM.

Larry's Southwestern Sauces are all-natural Mexican cooking sauce to make award-winning chili, tacos, enchiladas, burritos, huevos rancheros, chicken mole, chipotle nachos or to simmer your favorite meats and seafood in. Larry's sauces are vegetarian, gluten-free and delicious. 

If you like Mexican food, you'll love Larry's Southwestern Sauces.

Whole Foods Market, Hadley, MA tasting demo

KT at Whole Foods Market, Hadley, MA.

KT at Whole Foods Market, Hadley, MA loves Larry's Southwestern Chipotle and Ranchero Sauces. Wonderful tasting demo on 25March2012. Made a lot of friends and sold a ton of sauce. Thanks, Whole Foods, Hadley!

Adams Local Food Show

Great day on Saturday handing out samples of Larry's Southwestern Mole Sauce to the hundreds of people who came to Adams Local Food Show in Poughkeepsie. I mixed the Mole sauce with ground chicken so people could sample Southwestern Chicken Mole. 

I made it my mission that day to get everybody in the Hudson Valley addicted to Larry's Southwestern Mole Sauce. Everybody seemed to like it!

Thanks, Adams Fairacre Farm in Poughkeepsie!
h

Adams Fairacre Farms in Poughkeepsie

I will offer samples of Larry's Southwestern Sauces this Saturday, March 3rd from 11 am till 4 pm at Adams Fairacre Farms in Poughkeepsie. Adams is a wonderful store and this is their Local Food Show. There will scores of Hudson Valley food producers there and it should be great day!

Good Morning America features Larry's Southwestern Sauces

Good Morning America featured Larry's Southwestern Sauces as a "Super Bowl Party Essential."

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/super-bowl-deals-steals-gma-viewers-15446864

Larry's Southwestern Sauces in the Times Union

New York Acquires a Southwest TasteLarry Sombke plans to find a national market for his sauces.

The idea of Mexican cooking sauces made in upstate New York catching fire across the country might seem improbable, but Larry Sombke is trying to make it happen.

Sombke, a cooking and gardening expert from Delmar who has authored six cookbooks, developed his own Mexican sauces years ago when he was a chef at a natural foods restaurant in Missouri.

It wasn't until about two years ago that he realized that there aren't many -- if any -- authentic Mexican cooking sauces on supermarket shelves.

Sombke was reading a recipe for a pulled-pork dish in a lifestyle magazine that used salsa as the main seasoning for the meat. Salsa is usually used in Mexican foods as a condiment, but more complex sauces are used for simmering meat and in recipes for classics like huevos rancheros.

That's when it hit Sombke that there may be pent-up demand for Mexican cooking sauces. His wife suggested he make a business out of it.

"All right, there is a market here," Sombke remembers saying.

After reading a newspaper article about a local restaurateur who was bottling his own marinades and sauces, Sombke turned to Nelson Farms in Cazenovia outside Syracuse.

Nelson Farms is an agricultural-business incubator affiliated with Morrisville State College. It works with people starting their own food businesses -- helping with everything from coming up with a concept to preparing and packaging the product to sales and marketing.

"They helped me through the whole process and how to take a home recipe and make it into a store product," Sombke said.

Sombke developed three sauces. His mainstay rancheros sauce is made from tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro and spices. A chipotle sauce has smoked chili peppers and a mole made with cocoa. They sell under the name Larry's Southwestern Sauces for between $5.99 and $6.99 a jar.

Sombke started hawking his sauce at local farmers markets and pitching the product to supermarkets, big and small. That effort has been so successful that Larry's Southwestern Sauces are now carried in 75 stores in New York and New England, including 26 Whole Foods. Price Chopper in March started carrying sauces in 10 of its stores. He's targeting New York City and has a broker in Colorado to market the sauces in that state as well as Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, hotbeds for Mexican cuisine.

Sombke is now producing and packaging his sauces at Casa Visco in Schenectady, which in addition to making its own pasta sauces bottles private label products.

Adine Viscusi, an owner of Casa Visco, says most of its private label business is pasta sauce, but the Mexican sauces are a good fit since they are both tomato-based.

"We're glad to help him out," Viscusi said. "We started out as a small business too."

Despite the grand plans for expansion beyond of the Capital Region, Sombke says his going to local farmers markets is invaluable. He spends time each week at those held in Delmar, Voorheesville and the Empire State Plaza in Albany.

"It's a perfect marketing tool," he says. "You can get feedback. You learn about pricing. They are just the perfect way to get the product into the market."

Larry's Southwestern Sauces in the Daily Gazette

Bringing the Southwest to the Northeast

Larry Sombke prepares huevos rancheros with his all-natural Ranchero sauce at his home in Delmar. Huevos rancheros is an easy dish to whip up. All you need is eggs, a good chili sauce (like Larry’s Sombke Southwestern Ranchero Sauce), some grated cheese, tortillas and a lime garnish, if you are feeling fancy.


Larry Sombke warmed a kettle full of fresh crushed tomatoes, garlic, onion, jalapeño peppers and cilantro inside the kitchen of his Delmar home.
“Mmmm,” Sombke said of his spicy sauce. “It even smells good.”

Sombke wants people to enjoy both aromas and tastes of his ranchero, chipotle and mole (pronounced “MOE-lay”) sauces — the stars of his Larry’s Southwestern Sauce line. The Mexican-influenced sauces can be used for nachos, tacos, scrambled eggs, soups, chicken wings and also jazz up meats and seafoods.

Sombke believes the sauces are unique because of their ingredients. Americans are exploring Southwestern foods more than they used to, Sombke believes, and that means more chipotle peppers — they’re smoke-dried jalapeños — more dishes with beans and corn tortillas and more cilantro.

“If you don’t have cilantro in a Mexican-style sauce, you don’t have a Mexican-style sauce,” Sombke said, as he sampled his warm “ranchero” on a cold, late winter day.

The author and food producer has been making his Mexican sauces since the late 1970s and his days as a chef at the Pacquin Street Cafe, a natural foods restaurant in Columbia, Mo. During travels to California and Mexico, Sombke learned about chipotle peppers and other ingredients popular in Southwest-style cooking.

Other careers followed. Sombke worked in radio and wrote food articles for publications such as The New York Times, Esquire, Food & Wine, USA Today and the New York tabloid newspapers. He owned and operated The Private Chef, a personalized catering business in New York City and the Hamptons.

Sombke also was the associate producer on “What’s Cooking With Burt Wolf” and “Burt Wolf’s Travels” on PBS and CNN. He has written 14 books about cooking, gardening and sustainable green living. For 10 years, he was heard as the “Natural Gardener” on Northeast Public Radio.

Sombke always kept his sauce pots going. Friends liked the mixtures so much that he decided to manufacture his products on a greater scale and market them. Nelson Farms in Cazenovia (near Syracuse) was the first step. Nelson is part of the Pride of New York program, designed to encourage local small-scale agriculture and food production, and became Larry’s Southwestern’s first co-packer.

He began selling his jars during the summer of 2009, visiting farmers’ markets in Delmar, Voorheesville, Ballston Spa and the Empire State Plaza in Albany. “We had no idea how the public would respond, but they liked the flavors,” Sombke said. “They liked the fact that this was an all-natural vegetarian product with no preservatives.”

The sauces are now also manufactured closer to home, at Casa Visco Fine Foods in Rotterdam. And in January, Sombke’s triple play received shelf space in 10 Price Chopper supermarkets in the Capital Region, including Glenville, Saratoga Springs, Wilton, Clifton Park and Colonie.

Twenty-six Whole Foods markets in New England are also on the Larry’s bandwagon, and the Southwesterners are also available at the Honest Weight Food Co-Op in Albany and the Niskayuna Co-op supermarket. Each jar costs between $5.99 and $6.99. Nearly 75 stores in all carry Larry's Southwestern Sauces, from Portland, ME, to Saratoga Springs to Bedford Hills.

Sombke said his ranchero offers the natural flavors of jalapeño and cilantro. Chipotle, featuring the smoked jalapeño peppers, adds a layer of smoky flavor. “Mole has the mysterious, rich flavor of chocolate,” Sombke said. “When people try mole, they don’t know what the flavor is. It doesn’t taste like a chocolate bar.” The sauces can also be used for nachos, as marinades, in meat loaf or on hamburgers.

“They taste great, they’re exciting flavors with the chilies and the herbs,” Sombke said. “They’re also very healthy and natural flavors. People have been eating Mexican-type flavors for years in fast food restaurants, but now they’re discovering that there are better flavors, better options, more authentic flavors and I think they’re really attracted to them.”

Shop Rite and Whole Foods Tasting Demos

I offered samples of Turkey Mole at Shop Rite Supermarket in Kingston, NY on Saturday and Ranchero Red Beans at Whole Foods Market in Glastonbury, CT on Sunday. It was the first day of Spring. Sold several cases of Larry's Southwestern Sauces and made a lot of new friends. Thanks, Shop Rite and Whole Foods!