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How it all began

At Pace Foods, our passion for making salsa dates back more than 74 years, to one loveable craftsman: David Pace. A purist of uncompromising care. An entrepreneur with the mind, heart and palate for making the perfect sauce.

David Pace was born in Louisiana. After many accomplishments of note— working for the family syrup business, winning a football scholarship to Tulane, competing in the first Sugar Bowl, piloting a jet in WWII— a newly-wed David settled down in the heart of Texas.

For being settled down, he was always riled up, hot on the trail of the perfect mixture. Over the better part of a decade, one mixture rose to the top: freshly hand-picked jalapeño, crisp onion, and ripe, smoothly blended tomato. The world’s first “Picante Sauce”.

The Particulars

Now that he had finally created the perfect sauce, another problem arose: how would he keep fresh ingredients all year round? In order to meet demands (25 million pounds of fresh jalapeño alone), David forged an alliance with local farmers, pioneering the Pace® Pepper Trail we continue to use today.

Ensuring every bottle would be true to perfection, David crafted the Pace® heirloom jalapeños by using the seeds from two distinctly perfect jalapeños, over and over again. One pepper brings the kick you taste in our Medium and Hot salsas, dips and sauce. The other is our specially-bred, Pace® “No Heat” jalapeño for Mild products, retaining all of the flavor and none of the bite.

The legacy lives on

Keeping David’s passion for quality is a tradition proudly carried on by Pace Foods. Pace® is still made in Texas, with dedicated employees who carefully test every batch with the same uncompromised care that David Pace put into every bottle. Every variety embodies the great taste and craftsmanship that the Pace® brand perfected back in 1947.