Jamie Gordon West of Albuquerque devised her own tray to hold samples and notes as she tastes soups at Saturday’s Souper Bowl at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)
Jamie Gordon West arrived at her third Souper Bowl armed with her “food baby.”
The Albuquerque installation artist sliced a half-moon from a cardboard box to fit her waist, then tied recycled ribbons around her neck to serve as a portable food tray. She flaunted her homemade contraption as she migrated from booth to booth at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
“It’s adjustable so when my stomach gets bigger, I can move it up and down,” she said.
Gordon West was one of more than 1,400 guests sipping soup from 28 Santa Fe restaurants Saturday in support of The Food Depot, which netted more than $60,000 from the event. Although some diners were repeat customers, many said this year’s 20th annual event was the first time they had attended the charity taste-testing.
Restaurants competed in four categories, while diners paid $30-$35 for the privilege.
The Anasazi Restaurant’s crab and sweet corn soup awaits tasters at Saturday’s Souper Bowl, a fundraiser for The Food Depot. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)
The winner for best soup, as well as best savory soup, was Terra Restaurant at the Four Seasons Rancho Encantado with a winter squash and chorizo soup. Other category winners were El Milagro New Mexico, best creamy soup, with a spicy potato and bacon cream soup; Nath’s Specialty Catering, best seafood soup with its Tom Yum Seafood; and Kingston Residence of Santa Fe, best vegetarian soup, with a chilled roasted poblano peppers, piñon and juniper berry soup.
During the event, guests wandered around booths sampling soups while a projected “scoreboard” blinked the latest voting tallies. A brass presentation “football” à la the National Football League’s Vince Lombardi trophy awaited the Best Soup winner beneath a podium. Some visitors took a one-soup-at-a-time approach, while others ate multiple versions by category.
Starbucks provided coffee, while the Olive Garden offered tiramisu.
First-timer Darlene Goering brought her 6-year-old son Tyler for the tasting.
“I don’t like tomato soup, but I like the Pantry’s tomato soup,” the Santa Fean said. “He doesn’t even like tomato soup and he loves it,” she added, watching as Tyler brought the cup to his lips.
Santa Fe’s Sarah Palmer, 19, preferred La Fonda’s pumpkin soup. She and her mother, Cathy, lined up the vegetarian soups on the long cafeteria table in front of them.
“It’s kind of sweet, like pumpkin pie, but it’s sort of savory,” she said.
Santa Fe’s Juanita Sena-Shannon placed her six soups on a tray. She was attending with her sister Liz Griego, also from Santa Fe. Sena-Shannon scribbled on a piece of paper before her with the soup names and their origins.
“We decided to make a map,” she said, ” — so I know what I’m eating and where it’s from.”
From left, Michael Singley, owner and chef at the Pantry Restaurant, along with Juan Carlos Dominguez and Cesar Becerra, serve their tomato basil soup to Susan Katz of Santa Fe during the 20th annual Souper Bowl held on Saturday. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)
“My husband and I donate to the food bank,” she continued. “We’re seeing so many people who have so little.”
Fellow Santa Fean Ed Urig has been attending the event for “eight to 10 years.”
“We have friends we meet here every year,” he said. “We take each soup and we try it. We do one at a time and we vote.”
The group had just tasted Luminaria’s seafood soup.
“It had a great lobster flavor, but it wasn’t overpowering,” Urig said. “We like that we can take one and talk about it and vote. Sometimes there will be an outlier who won’t vote with the group.”
Justin Kennerd drove from Albuquerque for the Souper Bowl.
“My girlfriend brought me up here. She has talked about the Souper Bowl and how cool it is for a long time,” he said while he nibbled some tiramisu, his “palate cleanser.”
Gordon West was eager to move on to the cream soup category, as an empty cup and a crumpled napkin perched on her “food baby.”
“I love to eat more than anything,” she said. “I got blessed with a high metabolism gene.”
Her partner Andrew Kastner stood beside her like a courtier awaiting instructions.
“I’m more of the trash runner,” he said.
The Food Depot is a northern New Mexico food bank serving nine counties, providing food to 135 nonprofit agencies. The food bank distributes an average of 400,000 pounds of food and household products each month, providing more than 500,000 meals to people in need.