From a contest to a life's project.

I'm Daniel Morales Porras.

I grew up in northern Mexico, where carne asada wasn't just a meal — it was a family ritual. That's where my passion for the grill, for cooking, and for creating different dishes was born. From a young age I worked in restaurants, and I discovered that beyond cooking, I loved experimenting with flavors and bringing creativity to everything I made.

Years later, while driving through the United States, I heard a radio ad that would change my life. A well-known beer brand was running a contest for chefs, and the main theme was carne asada. There were only six spots for the entire city of Dallas.

The truth is, I wasn't even a professional chef.

I called anyway. They asked me a few basic cooking questions and, to my surprise, I was one of the six chosen.

The day of the contest arrived, and I decided to do what I do best: cook the way we do it up north. I didn't try to impress with complicated recipes; I simply made a good carne asada with a salsa I had been perfecting over the years.

That day, I won first place.

The funniest part was that, among all the dishes, the star turned out to be the salsa.

Thanks to that win, I advanced to the state round and then to the grand national final, held in New York during Super Bowl week in 2014.

That competition had one big challenge: to show creativity and improvisation. Like a good Mexican, when I realized there was no molcajete, I didn't overthink it. I grabbed a plastic tray and a can of the sponsor's beer to grind the ingredients.

The judges didn't just taste the salsa… they loved the story and the improvisation behind it. That moment drew a lot of attention and confirmed something I was starting to believe: that salsa had something special.

A few years passed, but that idea never left my head.

In 2019, I decided to turn that salsa into a real project. Not long after came the pandemic and, along with a very hard personal chapter, the road got far more complicated. Even so, I decided to keep going.

It wasn't easy.

Like any entrepreneur, I started testing again and again. My goal was crystal clear: I wanted people to open a bottle and feel like the salsa had just come out of the molcajete — that aroma of fire-roasted ingredients, that homemade flavor, that feeling of standing around a grill with family and friends.

After many attempts, we finally did it.

The next challenge was finding a name.

For weeks I made lists of more than thirty options. The original name was going to be Molcajete Grill, but because of trademark registration issues in Mexico, we couldn't use it.

One day I thought: “What if it carried my last name instead?”

I'll admit I had never liked the idea of putting my last name on a business. As a kid I was even teased at school because my last name is Porras. It was always an uncommon name and made for plenty of jokes. Luckily it never bothered me — on the contrary, I learned to laugh along.

Then it all made sense.

Salsa Porras.

It didn't just sound good; it connected perfectly with a phrase I've always loved: “Échale Porras.”

Because in Mexico, echarle porras means to support, to cheer, to root someone on… and now it also means adding a good salsa to your tacos, your carne asada, and any meal.

I designed the first logo on a sheet of paper, a friend helped me digitize it, and after a few tweaks, the image that represents our brand today was born.

We started making the salsa by hand from home. Little by little we began selling it in small shops in Santiago, Nuevo León. I'll never forget those first customers who trusted a brand-new product and gave it a place on their shelves. Thanks to them, and to the support of many friends and small businesses in the region, Salsa Porras began to find its way.

Over time, the salsa started reaching new places. Friends and influencers tried it, liked it, and began recommending it.

What began as a salsa made for a contest ended up becoming a life's project.

Today, every bottle of Salsa Porras represents much more than a recipe. It represents perseverance, creativity, family, carne asada, friends, and the pride of our northern roots.