Saturday, October 5, 2024

The Panxa Hatch chile roast tradition returns this weekend (Speak Cheezy pizza collab included)

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The Panxa Hatch Chile Roast Festival—an annual tradition started by Chef Art Gonzalez and his wife, current owner Vanessa Auclair—returns this weekend, Sept. 14 and 15, from noon to 4PM each day. Expect the wafting scent of chile skins being charred along with local vendors, the ability to buy it at $9 per pound, and an array of hatch chile grub ranging from tacos to pizza to cocktails.

How the Panxa hatch chile roast is much more than, well, just a roast

For Vanessa, who introduced Chef Art to the mighty Hatch chile, the annual tradition brings her back to her childhood in Santa Fe, where the smoke of each roasting season would travel far from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico.

“Our annual Panxa Hatch chile roast has become a beloved tradition for our patrons,” Vanessa said. “The Hatch green chile is indigenous to Hatch, New Mexico—and cannot be grown in California. It is like grapes for wine: it has to have the perfect climate and soil to grow to its full-flavored potential. It has always amazed me how people treasure these chiles and look forward to the roasting every fall in New Mexico. The smell in the air is captivating and brings back memories of growing up in Santa Fe.”

For Vanessa—who has often described her approach to food and sustenance as much spiritual as it is tangible—the Hatch chile is sacred, as it is for the vast majority of New Mexicans.

The Hatch Valley in southern New Mexico has become synonymous with green chile. And as Vanessa noted, with its altitude, water, and nutrient-rich soil creating a chile so distinct that its annual harvest attracts tourists, food lovers, chefs, and locals to come in droves to get their 20-pound bags of freshly roasted Hatch chiles. The end of summer brings with it the ubiquitous site of road-side chile roasters, typically led by rancheros turning a cylindrical, perforated metal drum filled with green chiles over an intense, propane-fueled fire that chars and blisters them to a deep black.

There will be plenty of Hatch-centric food offerings as well

On Saturday, Sept. 14, Panxa will partner with Belmont Heights pizzeria Speak Cheezy for a Hatch chile pizza.

“Really stoked on this collaboration,” said Speak Cheezy owner Jason Winters. “We’re gonna do the sourdough Sicilian squares. Topped with Choriman green chorizo, corn, Fontal cheese, Hatch chilies, spring onions, and lime.” And that lime squeeze? Reminds us of another collab pizza Chef Jason did with Gemmae, a Filipino-inspired pie using sisig and Kalamansi lime.

On the regular menu? Bacon-wrapped Hatch chile with a raspberry dipping sauce. Hatch chile queso with chips to dip. Quesillo-stuffed Hatch chiles that are then battered with Tempura and fried. And master cocktail concoctioneer Bryce Kaesman—certainly one of the city’s best bar manager—will also have a drink special on hand. He has pickled Hatch chiles and will use them for a savory, dirty martini.

Then, of course, you have the roasted chiles themselves you can purchase. Each year sells out. So if you want your guaranteed bag of roasted Hatch chiles, you can already pre-order them here.

Ryan Morrison has handled roasting for years at Photos by Brian Addison.

The Panxa Hatch Chile Roast Festival stems from a deep-rooted relationship to the Hatch Valley

“You can smell the chile in the air,” Gonzalez told me in 2019, three years before his death. “You can smell it as the harvest is coming. And then you smell the smokey, sweetness the chile brings as the community begins to roast them. It is something that continually enchants me.”

There are a million ways to describe how Vanessa and Chef Art—the latter of whom died in 2021 at his home in Castle Rock, Colorado—affected those around them. And that very much includes Vanessa’s home state of New Mexico. But one of the purist ways to showcase how the pair combined Vanessa’s love of her home state and Art’s love of food? It would take but one quip from Hector Mendoza. He’s the New Mexican farmer who provided Art with his yearly bundle of Hatch chiles for Panxa’s annual roast.

“I am getting old, Art, and I am thinking of retiring,” Hector once told him in 2019. “So I am beginning to let go of customers. But for you, my friend, I would pick for you until my hands could no longer contain the strength.”

Vanessa and Art were so respected that even a tired farmer couldn’t stop growing the famed chiles for them. And to this day, there is an annual trek from Long Beach to Hatch Valley. There, boxes upon boxes of Hatch chiles are packed up into a truck and then the trek is made back to the coast and we, as Long Beach locals, get to savor them.

It’s sacred—and we’re beyond lucky to have such an event in our own backyard.

Panxa Cocina is located at 3937 E. Broadway. The Panxa Hatch Chile Roast Festival will take place on Saturday, Sept. 14, and Sunday, Sept. 15, from noon to 4PM.

Brian Addison
Brian Addison
Brian Addison has been a writer, editor, and photographer for more than a decade, covering everything from food and culture to transportation and housing. In 2015, he was named Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club and has since garnered 25 nominations and three additional wins. In 2019, he was awarded the Food/Culture Critic of the Year across any platform at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards.

1 COMMENT

  1. This is such an amazing article on two wonderful humans and so well written.

    Their love for each other, sharing food, laughter, tequila, & traditions is who they were together. Vanessa has never forgotten her New Mexico people, who we are or where she came from! She’s exquisite and loyal. Chef would be so proud that this is going strong in Long Beach! He is greatly missed!

    Que Viva “The Panxa Hatch Chile Roast Festival”!

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