H-E-B contest gets local small business cooking

A Texas spin on gumbo impresses the grocery giant

RUBIE and George Huerta fast-forward through television commercials with their DVR — except during the Super Bowl. While watching the 2014 game at their daughter’s house, they saw a spot announcing the Quest for Texas Best contest, which offers cash prizes and the opportunity to get small-batch, Texas-made food products on H-E-B store shelves.

Since 2012, the Huertas had been running a side business catering their homemade Texas gumbo. But the born-and-bred Houstonians hadn’t come up with a strategy for getting their dish to the masses.

“We literally just did a double-take and looked at each other,” Rubie Huerta said. “We both knew when we saw the commercial, that’s how we were going to do it.”

The couple entered the H-E-B contest and wound up among 25 finalists. They didn’t win, but their Texas spin on traditional gumbo left enough of an impression with the grocery giant, which operates nearly 100 stores in

the Houston area, that the company set them up with a co-packer to handle mass production, packaging and other major steps. The gumbo made its debut over the July 4 weekend.

As the third annual contest wraps up this week, the Huertas are still moving toward profitability. The couple declined to say how much they invested in getting their gumbo to market, but George Huerta says the couple is already 20 percent of the way toward covering their initial investment.

Rubie Huerta said H-E-B has been supportive in a number of ways.

“Despite the fact that they’re a multibilliondollar company, H-E-B has shown the warmth of that grocer just around the corner,” she said. Officials even sent food when Rubie Huerta’s mother died. For James Harris, who oversees supplier diversity at H-E-B, the Huertas embody the whole idea behind the Quest for Texas Best competition: to diversify H-E-B’s product lineup while promoting small Texas businesses.

The Huertas’ journey officially began on a Monday night in 2012 as George Huerta took his wife’s arroz con pollo dinner and started mixing the rice, beans and shredded chicken on his plate. Rubie jokingly asked if he was making Mexican gumbo. It inspired the new dish.

Parties with friends

The couple, who worked for an air-conditioning company, soon began trying different recipes and hosting taste-testing parties with friends. Finally, they were freezing a pot of their gumbo and shipping it with dry ice to San Antonio for the H-E-B contest’s tasting committee. A week after the competition ended, an official called to say the grocer would still like to work with them.

Rubie Huerta, who was in church when the call came, credits their good luck to divine intervention. They still had to navigate the world of food retail.

“We really had to go from A to Z and everything in between,” Rubie Huerta said.

From the beginning, the Huertas knew they wanted all ingredients to come from the U.S. That proved to be a challenge, particularly when it came to finding a company that would not only catch shrimp but also process shrimp on U.S. soil.

The effort took almost two years, but H-E-B was willing to wait on them and guide them when needed.

Practical help

Harris said the company is dedicated to helping participants, offering not just exposure but also practical help in getting a product from kitchen or small store to the big-time aisles. At the start of this year, for example, H-E-B proposed the Huerta family launch a food line called Huertas’ Texas Kitchen with the gumbo dish merely the start.

Harris said customers have responded well to the products that came out of the competition’s first two runs, from both winners and runnersup, and the company has seen increased sales and incremental purchases as a result.

This year’s finalists include Kim and Tim Mehne, who produce I Needa Pita Baked Chips snack and run a healthy-alternative cooking and life-mentoring program for Houston youth called Dinner: IS Possible.

The Mehnes are now passing on the lessons they’ve learned through the contest to their students. Tim Mehne said their success so far has given them an added measure of credibility.

The Huertas, who will address this year’s finalists, see stories like the Mehnes’ as the success of the contest itself. The winners will be announced Thursday.

“H-E-B really hit it home when they created this contest because it’s reaching out to everyday average people who probably have these gifts that nobody would know about,” Rubie Huerta said. “That person can make that pie really well, or that one person who can fry chicken like no one else can, and they open windows to people like us.”

“We really had to go from AtoZand everything in between.” Rubie Huerta, Huertas’ Texas Kitchen