Savory secret : Festival cooks keep spaghetti sauce recipe a mystery

By Vernon Tarver

Posted: August 6, 2009 at 6:39 a.m.

Vernon Tarver
Roy Franco stirs a giant pot filled with 100 gallons of spaghetti sauce Wednesday at the St. Joseph Parish Hall in Tontitown. The sauce will be used for the 111th Tontitown Grape Festival's spaghetti suppers. A crew of volunteers will work to make 500 gallons of the sauce to ensure a steady supply.

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TONTITOWN — After all these years, the secret still isn't out.

One of the longest-running traditions at the Tontitown Grape Festival is, of course, the famous spaghetti dinners. But another tradition that goes back to the days when the first plate of festival spaghetti was served is still going strong as well.

While the noodles are always a hit when it comes to the festival spaghetti, it's the sauce that makes this meal unique.

Or should we say, the "secret sauce."

Although visitors to the grape festival might view the marinara mix as one of the better tasting dishes around, what makes this meal so special is the factthat the sauce recipe has been kept secret for all these years.

Longtime Tontitown resident Jettie Franco has been helping to make thegrape festival dinners for more than 50 years. And in that time, Franco said keeping the sauce recipe closely guarded is a big reason why the spaghetti hasbeen such a hit.

"Don't you think if everyone knew the recipe, they would want it for themselves?" Franco said. "That wouldn't be good business if we let everyone in on the secret.

"We're known for talkers, but not on this."

Volunteers began making the sauce Tuesday morning and will continue to make one batch every day through Saturday. Each batch of sauce takes a little less than three hours to prepare and fills up one mammoth 100-gallon cooking pot.

"We didn't used to cook it up this way," Franco said. "We used to have to make it on the stove, and we would just put it in as many pots as we could."

Mike Franco is serving as the chairman of the 111th Tontitown Grape Festival this year. And while he admits one of the perks of the job is to get an early taste test on the secret sauce, Franco looks more forward to sharing the special recipe withthousands of others who will visit the festival this week.

"If we serve 7,000, that will be great," Mike Franco said. "I think the most we've ever served in a single day at the grape festival is something like 2,400, and we're hoping to do that every day. If we can do that, it would be awesome."

Spaghetti dinners will be served today through Saturday at the grape festival, from 4:30-8:30 p.m. each night.Each plate comes with chicken, spaghetti and rolls and costs $10 for adults and $5 for children 12 and younger.

"I am still amazed at the turnout we get for the spaghetti dinners," Mike Franco said. "People come from all over, and they always rave about the spaghetti and the sauce.

"They just can't get enough of it. And when you think about it, we're really offering a great deal."

And they've been offering it for almost as long as anyone can remember. Whether it be today or 50 years ago, little has changed about the spaghetti dinners and that famous secret sauce.

"It's a secret special sauce, and it's always been that way," Jettie Franco said. "This is the same recipe we've always had.

"It's been handed down for generations."

Check out our festival coverage.

News, Pages 1, 3 on 08/06/2009

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