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Friday, March 29, 2024
<p>UF Large Animal Hospital veterinary technician Cheryl Gallowitz, 38, makes salsa at the Innovation CoLab in Weimer Hall on Thursday.</p>

UF Large Animal Hospital veterinary technician Cheryl Gallowitz, 38, makes salsa at the Innovation CoLab in Weimer Hall on Thursday.

The recipe started with a can of diced tomatoes and ended with a national championship.

Gainesville resident Cheryl Gallowitz was named the winner of Moe’s Southwest Grill Raise the Salsa Bar Contest on Aug. 30. Contest participants submitted their homemade salsa recipes online for a chance to win $1,000 and have their salsa featured in restaurant locations nationwide in 2013.

Gallowitz’s homemade “Three Bears Salsa” was chosen over other salsa finalists “Quentin Jalapeño” and “Fires of Hell” by the company’s executive chef.

In spite of her recent culinary success, Gallowitz said she still considers herself a novice in the kitchen.

The 38-year-old UF Large Animal Hospital veterinary technician prefers the safety of a handheld vegetable chopper to kitchen knives and has no qualms eyeballing ingredient amounts.

“The only time I was precise was when I submitted the recipe online,” she said. “I do my best not to cut myself or mutilate the ingredients.”

For the self-proclaimed rookie cook, creating the salsa was a process of trial and error spurred by necessity.

In 2010, Gallowitz was preparing to move to Gainesville from upstate New York. Without her favorite New York restaurant, Mexican cantina Santa Fe, she was left in a spicy conundrum.

In a feat of sheer palate power, Gallowitz set to replicate the recipe’s unique style. It only took her six tries.

“I just knew the flavors I was looking for,” she said. “They’re not really unusual ingredients.”

She diced yellow and white onions for a sweet and salty background to the salsa.

Sprinkling in just enough pickled jalapenos added a conventional, subtle spice to the salsa, she said.

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“I was trying to emulate the freshness and tartness of it,” Gallowitz said. “It wasn’t overly sweet.”

The result is a taste that’s “not too hot, not too mild,” according to Gallowitz. She said she originally wanted to name her recipe “Goldilocks Salsa,” a homage to the timeless fairytale; she decided against it before entering the contest, settling instead for “Three Bears Salsa.”

Gallowitz said she was pleasantly surprised to have won the competition.

After all, she said, “Three Bears Salsa” was the first recipe she’s ever created.

“For something I just took a chance on, it paid off,” she said.

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at mdavidson@alligator.org.

UF Large Animal Hospital veterinary technician Cheryl Gallowitz, 38, makes salsa at the Innovation CoLab in Weimer Hall on Thursday.

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