During the months of November and December, the San Jose Job Corps Center’s Culinary Arts Class received Tamales from all over the United States and then prepared the them for staff who were  preliminary judges to help select the Tamales that would move forward to the finals.  The final contest was held at San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose on  November 13, 2011 and was hosted by Damian Trujillo with NBC Channel 11.    NBC Air Dates: Saturday, December 17 at 3:30pm PST, Sunday, January 1 at 10:00am PST.

The following excerpt tells us how this impacted one of our staff who participated in this event.

Growing up eating Tamales my whole life, I automatically assumed I knew everything I needed to know about them. No one made them better then my grandma and my mother, who were the tamale experts according to everyone in my family. Every year around Christmas time all of the women would get together to make them, it was a tradition passed down from generation to generation. Luckily through San Jose Job Corps I was able to volunteer as a judge in the “Best Darn Tamale Contest”. It was amazing how versatile the tamale could really be, I would have never thought to put curry chicken in a tamale!  A few other exotic ones were the pepperoni pizza, thanksgiving turkey, blue corn vegan, and one of my favorites had to be a vegetarian tamale that had black beans, jalapeno, corn, cream cheese, and was wrapped in a flour tortilla then baked or fried depending on your preference. It was an explosion of so many unique and familiar flavors that just melted together so well. However, I have to say that the sweet tamales were definitely my favorite, you cannot go wrong with pumpkin, raspberry and Ghirardelli chocolate,  pecan with coconut and raisin, apple pecan, strawberry, and last but not least guava with cream cheese.  These were all very decadent and rich in deliciously warm and vibrant flavors that definitely went well with the season.

During this challenge I learned that pacing yourself was key, and also have a cup of water near-by.  The volunteer staff of Job Corps and Darlene Tenes, creator of “Casa Q” blog met up for about a month and a half every week to try quirky and exotic tamales from all over the country. By the end of it I was so relieved that it was over, but by no means do I hate tamales (just a little burnt out by the end of it). I don’t think it is physically possible for me to eat tamale this year, but I definitely look forward to them again next year. I loved the experience and being able to share it with a wonderful and unique group of people from San Jose Job Corp, which made it extra special. Now it’s back to hitting hard at the gym and running off the 6 pounds I gained from gorging on tamales….lol. I am just grateful for the experience and I think everyone should do this once in their lifetime.  Linda C.

Celebrity Judges