For the first time in it’s 23-year history, a pair of relatives who competed against one another in the annual Food City Tamale-Making Contest were crowned winners.
Diana Chacón won first place in the tamale contest while her son Luis Felix received third place in the Saturday event.
Dimas Toledo received second place in the tamale contest.
This year’s winners were Chacón’s pork salsa verde tamale, Felix’s pork red chile tamale and Toledo’s Chiapas-style tamale, which was a banana leaf-wrapped tamale with beef laid out on a masa mixed with chirpily.
Eight finalists from this year’s 10-day tamale-making contest gathered outside a South Phoenix Food City and prepared tamales for a panel of judges, which included officials from Food City and the Arizona Cardinals along with journalists and TV personalities from various news organizations including Axios, NBC News and Telemundo.
The first-place winner received $1,000 in furniture from Del Sol Furniture and a $500 Food City gift card as well as two free tickets to see the Arizona Cardinals.