Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Walsh.
Jeremy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I initially started making hot sauce as a hobby as a lot of hot sauce makers do. I came up with my first finalized sauce (which is now our 1o8 garlic basil) while living in Lincoln Park back in 1997 which I would dole out to friends and family at parties or work. People seemed to really like it so I was happy to whip some up whenever they wanted. Fast forward a couple years and I was working at a .com where my coworkers and I would have weekly homemade hot sauce contests at lunch which was a lot of fun and taught me a lot about what worked and what didn’t.
A few years later my wife Kat and I were living in Kona, Hawaii. I worked as a SCUBA instructor and as luck would have it my fellow crew members loved spicy food. So I hit a farmer’s market then went home and made some sauce. It was on from there. They wanted hotter and hotter which pushed me to get more and more creative with my recipes and what I found at local markets. This was in 2oo8 when the ghost pepper first started getting some notoriety. I ordered some from India for a recipe idea I had and that did the trick. Our 8o8 naga jolokia sauce was born.
After a good amount of research and permits I turned my hobby into an official business. Of course it needed a name and after some trial and error we chose Bigfat’s which was part of an old email address and sounded way better than the others (which were terrible). I was making sauce in kitchens of a couple local restaurants and selling the finished product at a local street fair to tourists from all over the world. They loved it and I was excited that I really had something here.
After about a year we moved back to Niles, just outside Chicago where I started everything up again and got things rolling working with a co-packer making small batches one sauce at a time when I could afford it. After another year or two I had my eight sauces and started making sales calls. I had a bit of luck when a friend and fellow entrepreneur told me Whole Foods was having a local business event. I went and stood around with all the other hopefuls with my ghost pepper sauce in hand. They loved it and took me on. From there it was a lot of work and persistence with other stores, cold calls, demos and lots of driving. It started to pay off and we decided to try our hand at a hot sauce show in Pennsylvania. Once again it went over fantastically and word got around fast.
Since then we’ve done hot sauce events in New York, Ohio, Chicago and Pennsylvania to name a few. We’ve met tons and tons of great people both in the industry and customers even famous chefs and rock stars. Our line has expanded with a few short run sauces and special releases. The ideas keep coming and the recipe book keeps filling up so who knows what comes next.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Running a small business is always a struggle. There’s so much to do, so many hats to wear. There’s a lot of organization, time management and patience involved. I would say some of the main struggles have been logistics of ingredients or scheduling falling through as well as balancing the budget. Sometimes it’s trying to track down late payments and getting nothing but voicemail but that tends to happen less often, though it does happen.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Bigfat’s Hot Sauce – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are a hot sauce company with a line a deliciously unique flavors and heat levels using loads of fresh ingredients and varying types of chilies. We specialize in flavors that are not something you find in your mainstream grocery store like our Bazaar Magic – harissa style with Carolina Reaper (the current Guinness record holder for hottest chile) and Double Dark – black cherry and sage sauce which is amazing with pulled pork.
I’m most proud of having created a cohesive line of really good products but more than that I’m proud that so many people have told us we are their favorite hot sauces ever. We’ve had emails, Facebook posts and even customers at multiple hot sauce shows tell us ours are the best sauces of all the other vendors. That’s gotta make you feel good!
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Right now we are just prepping for the holiday season. It’s gets crazy busy very quickly and we want to be ready. I have a few ideas on where to take things and a handful of recipes that are getting ironed out but honestly I don’t want to just make a product just to make it. I want it to be special, pair well with a variety of foods and speak to a lot of people. That’s the whole trick though, isn’t it?
Pricing:
- Our sauces range from $6.49 to $9.99 on our website
Contact Info:
- Website: www.BigfatsHotSauce.com
- Email: Bigfat@BigfatsHotSauce.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigfatshotsauce/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigfatsHotSauce/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigfatshotsauce
Image Credit:
Rich Trevino – (Chile Pepper) Kat Walsh – wife, Chris Santos – Chef
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
