Who we are

 

 

 

Add a little more spice to your life.

 

 

 

We don’t have a whimsical story about growing up in the kitchen tied to our grandmother’s apron strings.  There’s no 150 year old family recipe that’s been handed down from generation to generation.  It’s just us, but all great recipes have to start somewhere.

So what is our story?  Well, to explain that, we have to take you back to the very beginning.  One beautiful October weekend in 1992, Diane and I were on a much needed vacation in Sedona, Arizona.  Joining us on our weekend of rest and relaxation was my sister Dori and her boyfriend Barry (who never met a hot sauce he didn’t like).  While on a leisurely stroll through the myriad of art galleries and quaint little shops, we stumbled into a store that sold nothing but hot sauces and salsas.  Never in my wildest dreams did such a utopia of spicy foods even exist.  After sampling several of their fiery offerings, we purchased a couple of sauces that they said were their finest.  With our wallets a little lighter, our bags a little heavier and our tongues a little torched, we went on our merry way.

The next morning, Barry and I decided to try our luck fishing.  We returned a few hours later with our creels filled to the brim with fresh caught Rainbow Trout.  Okay…so we caught em’ at a fish farm down the street, but we still had to work for it.  Since I was a chef, it was my job to prepare lunch.  With a couple of lemons and a red onion at my side, I went to work.  I topped off the fish with a drizzle of the hot sauces that we purchased the day before.  Lunch was ready and we all sat down to enjoy our meal.  Needless to say, I was greatly disappointed.  Not with the trout, or my preparation, but with the hot sauce.  If these were the best that the store had to offer, than something was amiss.  I continued with a relentless verbal assault on these terrible sauces until Barry (tired of hearing it) finally issued a challenge; “You’re a chef.  If you think you can do better, then put up or shut up.”  The gauntlet had been thrown and little did we know, it was about to change our lives forever.

As soon as we returned home, Diane and I went about our task.  Not only to make a better sauce, but to create the richest, most flavorful hot sauce around.  “Hey, if you’re going to do something, you might as well do it right”. We knew that to create the best hot sauce, we had to use the best ingredients that money could buy, no matter what the price.

After 3 days, countless trips to the market and a couple of broken blood vessels in my eye, we were ready to test our concoction on others.  Lucky for us, we had a large group of “guinea pigs” at the restaurant where we both worked, willing to try our hot sauce.  The response was overwhelmingly positive.

It took another 9 months to get the necessary government approvals and have labels printed.  Then came the hard part, making and selling it.  In those early days, we destroyed quite a few blenders and ruined most of our clothes, spattering hot sauce all over them, but we got it done.  Slowly, we learned how to do it better (and neater).  Sales grew quickly, and it wasn’t long before we both left our restaurant jobs forever.  Within a few years, we outgrew the kitchen we were renting and the time came for us to build our own factory.

Now we have a beautiful 2,400 square foot kitchen.  We both work a lot of hours and rarely get a day off, but we believe that all of the long hours we put into making Ring of Fire ®Hot Sauce are justified.  Every time we receive an e-mail or a phone call from someone who says, “This is the best hot sauce I’ve ever tasted.”, it only fuels our fire (pardon the pun).

We still work towards that goal of making the richest, most flavorful sauces, regardless of cost.  It still drives us, and dictates everything we do.  We know it’s kind of old fashioned, and not the most cost effective business philosophy, but it works for us.  What’s wrong with old fashioned anyway?  After all, didn’t you think it was our grandmother’s secret recipe or something like that?

Since you, our fans of the Ring of Fire ®Sauces, are our boss, and we wouldn’t be in business if it weren’t for you, we invite you to let us know what you think of our products and what you might like to see from us in the future.

Eat Well…Life is too short for bland food!

Mike & Diane 

On a personal note, Diane and I would like to thank her parents, Henry and Alice.  Without their tireless support and all their help, none of this would have been possible.  Here’s to you!