Marie Sharp’s Culinary Treasure Interview

Via the Culinary Treasure Podcast, I have interviewed over 100 people in the culinary world and this interview I had with Marie Sharp is very, very special to me.

Marie Sharp is a national hero in Belize, and she is an incredible businesswoman with a very inspiring story.

In 1981 Marie started her first hot sauce company making her acclaimed habanero pepper sauce . That company was stolen from her and in 1992 she started her second company – Marie Sharp’s Fine Foods.

One interesting note about her journey – in 2021 Marie Sharp’s Hot Sauce (founded in 1992) released a 40 Year anniversary limited edition hot Sauce. This was a clever nod to the 40 years that Marie has been making her incredible hot sauce.

In addition to having her first company unscrupulously taken from her, Marie had to also battle back from the loss of her son and the loss her husband both of whom were involved in her company.

Marie’s courage and tenaciousness is to be celebrated.

It was an honor to be able to interview this dynamic woman.

Below you find a written version of the interview I conducted with Marie Sharp.

Marie Sharp Founder of Marie Sharp’s Hot Sauce ~ Culinary Treasure Podcast Episode 111

You can also listen to the Culinary Treasure Podcast episode I recorded with Marie. You can find the Culinary Treasure Podcast whenever you listen to podcasts, or you can go to this link here –

https://www.culinarytreasurepodcast.com/marie-sharp-founder-of-marie-sharps-hot-sauce-culinary-treasure-podcast-episode-111/

One Final Note – I conducted this episode at the Marie Sharp’s global headquarters in Belize.

I flew to the beautiful Central American country of Belize. I then traveled to the Stann Creek district and drove down Melinda Drive to the Melinda Farm which is the home of the Marie Sharp’s global headquarters. It was very cool to see the place that Marie has been making her hot sauce since 1981!

Cheers,

Steven Shomler

Marie Sharp’s Culinary Treasure Interview

Steven Shomler:

I’ve been here in Belize for a few days now and I am having an incredible time, and I’m so delighted to be here with a true Belizean legend Marie Sharp, founder Marie Sharp’s Hot Sauce.

Marie, thank you so much. It’s delight to interview you!

Marie Sharp:

Thank you for coming here, and I’m glad you’re enjoying your stay in Belize.

Steven Shomler:

So, questions I ask all my guests on all my podcasts. Where were you born?

Marie Sharp:

I was born in the Belize City.

Steven Shomler:

And where did you go to high school?

Marie Sharp:

In Dangriga.

Steven Shomler:

And the name of the high school?

Marie Sharp:

Austin High School.

Steven Shomler:

And like a lot of my friends in Europe, high schools in Belize don’t have mascots, is that correct?

Marie Sharp:

Yeah.

Steven Shomler:

Oh, what silly fun in America, our high schools have different mascots. So you started what became Marie Sharp’s Hot Sauce in 1981, but tell me the story about the first time you actually made hot sauce.

Marie Sharp:

Actually, I had an excess of pepper mash, and one night I came home from work and just started playing around with peppers, and I started developing sauces of different kinds. I made one with carrots and cabbage and made one with papaya. I made one with all different kinds of fruits, and then just to give away the friends and family.

And actually, it was one of my friends who encouraged me to market the carrot-based sauce, which I found out quickly was the favorite of everyone that has tasted it.

My friend encouraged me, they said, you know that, with sauce is better than anything that was being sold in market at that time.

And I went out and I bought myself three stoves, the favorite top models, the full burners. And I bought the peppers and I start with making pepper sauce. In the evenings on my spare time, I didn’t give up my job.

I started marketing on weekends and make my refried beans with my fried tortillas, and I would go out and give tasters, and would door to door to all the stores asking them to put some in their shelves, and that was where it all started.

Steven Shomler:

So was the reason you made the fried beans, the tortillas, was to have something to put the hot sauce on for tasting?

Marie Sharp:

Yeah. Taste of it. They tasted. Yes.

Steven Shomler:

That is brilliant. So now you and your husband ended up with a good-sized size farm. Is that part of what motivated this?

Marie Sharp:

Yes. That was a part of the plan. We ended up with the farm and we started planting fruits that could be sold in Belize locally, and actually it was only one of my sister’s phone calls that really made me started planting up habanero peppers for someone who was the medical officer in Belize, and he was producing a pepper sauce. I went ahead and planted peppers. Unfortunately, he was only doing a very small amount of pepper sauce.

So, I ended up with peppers that I had no market for. And I had to find something to do with them. And that first, what really, what they give me the start to play around with different formulas to use the mash that they had on hand.

Steven Shomler:

So, you make some hot sauce at home, everyone said it was good, you chose to go with carrot and habanero, right?

Marie Sharp:

Yes

Steven Shomler:

You don’t yet have a business and you then bought three stoves, is that right?

Marie Sharp:

Yes. Three stoves.

Steven Shomler:

You must have believed in yourself that you were going to sell that hot sauce to buy three stoves. Most people would buy one or use the one they had.

Marie Sharp:

Well, I never for a moment thought that I wouldn’t have been able to sell what I was producing, because I was going to put up my all behind each. But that is why I started with three stoves.

Steven Shomler:

Now I think I have a little bit of insight of why your business is such an incredible success. You just have that spark and that fire and determination. You’ve had it from the very beginning.

And back to this farm, the farm is 400 acres?

Marie Sharp:

Yes – 400 acres.

Steven Shomler:

And a lot of people in America have no idea what that is. But I grew up on 260 acres in the middle of nowhere, Southern California, nine miles of dirt road to get to where I grew up. We had an outhouse till I was seven. We had no electricity till I was 12. So 400 acres is a good size piece of property. And you still grow… You still grow stuff on the farm to this day?

Marie Sharp:

Yes. Almost everything that we produce as a product here, comes from what is grown on the farm.

Steven Shomler:

And what are some of the products you grow?

Marie Sharp:

We grow mangoes, we grow papayas, we grow pineapples, we grow guavas, we grow tamarind, we grow oranges, grapefruits, we grow all the fruits that you could think of, we have at this farm.

And apart from that, we grow some of our own peppers. We use… actually, since my husband passed away the last three years, we haven’t done so, but we used to grow some of our own carrots also. So we grow some of everything that we turn into a product.

Steven Shomler:

That’s amazing. And so in the United States… Skipping ahead to the story, the United States, now we are recording this in 2022 is your largest market., Second to Japan. Took a long time to the United States to become your largest market for Marie Sharp’s. But in the United States you selling mainly hot sauce, right?

Marie Sharp:

We sell everything.

Steven Shomler:

Everything? Okay. Because I look at of the shelves of the stores here in Belize, and I see a beautiful row of Marie Sharp’s hot sauce. I think you make 900 different flavors (fun hyperbole) But then I saw a whole bunch of jellies and jams, and I was like, oh my goodness.

Marie Sharp:

We do jams and jellies. We do nine varieties of jams and jellies. All our jams and jellies are made from fruits grown here on the farm. We do banana, coconuts, guava, mango and papaya, pineapple, orange jelly, orange marmalade, that we do that for all, and it’s all of a very high fruit content no preservatives, no food color.

We use the unrefined sugar cane sugar, so it’s as natural as it can get be. Now we also do pepper jellies, we do a chutney, we do a steak sauce that’s made from tamarind and green peppers.

Marie Sharp:

Yes. So all our products are fresh ingredients. We don’t have anything in there that is powdered nothing. Even our pepper sauce, everything that you get in that sauce is fresh ingredients. Our jams and jelly the same thing.

Steven Shomler:

Yeah. So, in my journey, when I tell my story of people, I talk about that I’ve battled back from some different challenges in my life. I call them my three great disasters. And you’ve battled back from a lot of things.

A lot of people have struggled to build one business. And in my head, you built two businesses.

Because that first company you started in 1981, that was Melinda’s Hot Sauce. Is that right? Yeah. Why did you call it, Melinda’s Hot Sauce?

Marie Sharp:

I call it Melinda’s because the name of the farm is Melinda. This is Melinda Estates. And I thought that because we grew what we are putting into the products here, that the correct name for the product should be Melinda.

Steven Shomler:

And by the way, it’s a beautiful farm. I’ve been blessed to be on a lot of farms in my journey, but for what I do for culinary storytelling, and you just have a beautiful farm, it’s quite amazing.

So 1981 you started Melinda’s Hot sauce, and then roughly 1992 you started over from scratch with Marie Sharp’s Hot Sauce.

Marie Sharp:

Right.

Steven Shomler:

You had a challenge with the distributor in the United States. And we’ll leave that story for another time, although the ornery side of me would like to tell it. But we’ll leave that for another time. You were put in a situation you didn’t want to be in where you had to start all over from scratch.

No funds. Nobody knew who Marie Sharp’s hot sauce was.

How did that feel to have to start over for a second time? It must have just felt like a kick in the stomach.

Marie Sharp:

Actually, I curled up in my bed, and cried for days.

And I actually thought that I was going to give up, just give up.

And actually, one of my retailers … Somebody that was selling sauce for me, out in New Jersey. And he called and he said, “Marie, what is going on?”

I told him what had happened. And he said, “And what are you going to do?”

I said – “I have given up”

And he said, “That’s not like you.” He said, “You get out of that bed, you get on your knees, and you pray, you ask God to give you strength. I know you can do it, and you’ll get up and do it, get over, start over again.”

And actually, I listened to him, and I thought, what he’s saying is right.

Then I just got up and I said, “no, I’m going to fight, I am not going to leave them to just enjoy something I started” and I got up, and actually we did get backers who were willing to finance me again.

I started over.

Steven Shomler:

I just have to applaud your courage.

I help people… two different things I do in my life – I’m a culinary storyteller and I’m a LifeStory Alchemist.

I help people go live the life they want and start businesses, but so many people they want to start a business, and they just don’t have it in them to start one business.

And you had to start two businesses. And the second one you had to start was in the face of a brutal loss.

I just can’t tell you how much I admire your courage. You’re truly an inspiration.

Marie Sharp:

Well, it was very, very difficult because it was hard to convince people that the sauce, I was now selling (Marie’s Sharp’s) is the same one I started with – Melinda’s Hot Sauce.

It’s just a different name. It’s only the name. I had to tell the whole world is this. I had to spread as much as I could a story, so that people would know why I had to change and what had happened.

Steven Shomler:

Well, it’s almost one and the same. It’s the same you. Up until roughly 1991, it was your recipe and you made it and they sold it for you in the United States.

Marie Sharp:

Yes.

Steven Shomler:

But after roughly 1991, Melinda’s Hot sauce does not have your recipe.

Marie Sharp:

Correct

Steven Shomler:

It doesn’t have your name.

Marie Sharp:

Correct

Steven Shomler:

You never gave them your recipe. It’s your secret.

I heard a rumor that there’s a big vault, there’s a 12-foot vault and it’s locked up and only certain people have it.

So up until 1991 it was the same. And you could say, when you first started in 1992, you told people “hey! the Melinda’s you used to have – this is the same stuff, now it’s my name”

But now and since 1991 Melinda’s is different, Melinda’s is not the same hot sauce as it was prior to 1991 because they never got your true recipe.

And your hot sauce is… It is my favorite hot sauce.

I’ll tell you my Marie Sharp Hot sauce story in a bit. But your hot sauce – it is absolutely incredible!

So why the name Marie Sharps, when you had to start over at roughly in 1992.

Marie Sharp:

Actually, it was my lawyer who convinced me to put my name on it, because he said, it’s so easy to steal a generic name, it’s not as easy to steal a person’s name. And it a living person’s name. So, he convinced me of that, and that is when I decided to put my name on my hot sauce.

Steven Shomler:

I’m so glad you said that I’ve raised daughters, I have a stepdaughter, and I don’t know how things are in Belize.

I can only speak about my own country. But the United States for many years, in my opinion, just my opinion, women were given a much harder time in business, and in life, and had a tougher path.

And I don’t like that, I don’t think it’s right. And I think it’s really, really important that we celebrate women in business. I want my daughters to know that they can do what they want to do in life.

I think that’s part of the beauty of your name being on it, there is an actual incredible businesswoman behind this magnificent hot sauce.

Marie Sharp:

Yes, it was a very difficult thing that we had to face, because when I came down to this farm, my husband built me my first factory on the farm here.

Remember I was doing all this in my kitchen, and then we came out to the farm here. And here I did not have electricity, I did not have phones, we were like in a jungle. We didn’t have any facilities built here.

So, it was very difficult. Like power, we had to generate power with a generator, one of these big old things that you had to crank until it kicks in and starts up. That was my power when we started here at this farm.

Steven Shomler:

And those are very loud. I have been around generators like those.

Marie Sharp:

Yes, very noisy, very loud. And that was how I started down here.

My hot sauce company was growing quickly, and government officials started visiting me. And when they saw where I was, and I told them I had no electricity, I had nothing, they started helping and they put in electricity for me. And then they put in telephone lines. But this was years after we had started.

Steven Shomler:

I wish I didn’t know what that was like. But we didn’t have a phone in my house, or a landline until I was 13. And I grew up in the old days before there were cell phones.

Marie Sharp:

Yes.

Steven Shomler:

So, I know what it’s like to have to drive into town or drive to the neighbors to get a phone.

Marie Sharp:

Yes.

Steven Shomler:

Oh, that brings back some memories. So, I wish I didn’t know of that, but I do. And hats off to you! I didn’t realize you even face the obstacles of no electricity and no phone, that’s just incredible.

Marie Sharp:

Yes, yes, yes.

Steven Shomler:

I admired you a lot before, and oh it just like, in my mind, your legend is growing even more.

And the first flavor you started with, that was the habanero?

Marie Sharp:

Is the mild. Was mild. The first one that I made was the mild.

Steven Shomler:

Mild?

Marie Sharp:

Yeah. They called these mild habanero pepper sauce. Then that was the first one we put out, and then after a while, people just went, oh, this is not hot enough.

Steven Shomler:

Then you have what? I think I remember 872 flavors now, is that right?

Marie Sharp:

No, we only have 14.

Steven Shomler:

And they’re all good. That’s the great thing. They’re all good. But you have a newer, super-hot one. Is that right?

Marie Sharp:

Yes. Yes we do. We have that. We have habanero scorpion. Habanero Scorpion one. It’s very hot.

Steven Shomler:

Yeah. So you have a new cultivar, you call, is it red hornet, is that right?

Marie Sharp:

Yeah, that’s the Red Hornet.

Steven Shomler:

Yeah, cultivar. And then the sauce is some habanero, and some scorpion.

Marie Sharp:

scorpion pepper.

Steven Shomler:

And that’s what? Is it five times hotter than the regular habaneros?

Marie Sharp:

Yes.

Steven Shomler:

I don’t think I could eat that. My wife can. She can eat hot sauce, and she’ll sweat and she’s happy. And I have too much hot sauce, so I think I’m going to die. But I love the mild. I love the mild very much.

Last year when I knew it was coming to Belize, I started even eating more of your hot sauce to prepare to meet with you. So, if I had to eat your hot sauce in front of you, I could honor you, because I didn’t want to be a hot sauce wimp in your presence.

Marie Sharp:

Okay. Again, we have different flavors at the moment. We know we have the carrot base sauces, then we have one that’s mango base, one that is pineapple base, one that is the orange pulp, grapefruit pulp, with the yellow. Those are all habanero sauces.

There’s mango, there’s pineapple, and there’s orange, grapefruit, yellow habanero, and then we have the green one, which is the prickly pear cactus and the green habanero. Then we have the smoked habaneros. We have two smoked habanero pepper sauces. So, we have quite the big and wide selection of peppers hot sauces.

Steven Shomler:

So you started over as Marie Sharps, roughly in 1992 and its 2022 now. My math is not so good. I didn’t like math in school. But that’s roughly 30 years, is that right?

Marie Sharp:

We first started in business as Melinda’s Hot Sauce in 1981

We have had 40 years in business total – 1981 to now, it’s 40 years.

Steven Shomler:

You started in business as Melinda’s Hot Sauce in 1981 and in 1992 you had to start over as Marie’s Sharp’s so that’s 30 years for Marie Sharp’s and 40 years being in business total – 10 years as Melinda’s Hot Sauce and another 30 years as Marie’ Sharp’s

That’s just an incredible legacy.

What’s interesting about your brand is that you are on every table here in Belize. Every restaurant I’ve been to, from… I love dive bars. From, I don’t know what you call them here, but in the United States we have rundown old, smelly dirty bars. We call them dive bars. And I love them.

So, from the best restaurants to the dive bars, here for your hot sauces on every restaurant in Belize. But also, you sell internationally. There’s a whole bunch of countries today that you sell your hot sauce in.

Marie Sharp:

Yeah. And we have been lucky that in the latter years, the tourism industry became the number one for Belize.

And the Belize tourist industry that helped has put us where we are today. Because the tourists just take away massive amounts of our sauces every time they visit Belize.

Not only sauces, but of our products. And so, they have become like my ambassadors, because they carry for family and friends and so on, and give away. And they were the ones that having made Marie Sharp’s famous.

Because before that, I couldn’t get into the US supermarkets, because it was so expensive to get it there. The US, all these supermarkets to carry your goods sometimes they have you pay them fees such as $3,000 per product per store.

And then the costs do not end there, you have to do co funds and you have to look… All of that is involved, that is normal costs of getting into big stores. So as we went into the American town markets, what we did was just avoided the supermarkets and deal with the mom and pops.

We did the exotic stores, The high-end stores, we bid the ethnic stores, we did but we just kept away from supermarkets, because of the cost of getting in there.

So actually eventually it was The tourists that started to make us known, and the big grocery stores, the supermarket started coming to us.

Steven Shomler:

So back in ’92, ’93, ’94, when you were starting over as Marie Sharp’s, what are some of the first countries outside of Belize that you were exporting to?

Marie Sharp:

Early on Japan was my largest market. The Japanese market grew and kept growing up over the years. And after Japan, then came Germany.

Steven Shomler:

Have you visited some of these countries?

Marie Sharp:

Oh yes. We’ve been to food shows in quite a number of countries. We have been to Japan, we have been to Germany, we have been to Korea, we’ve been to… Jodi went to China too. What was the place you went to in China? Shanghai. We went to Shanghai; we went to Taiwan. We’ve been to France, we’ve been to UK, we’ve been to all over to numerous countries

Steven Shomler:

So, did you ever think when you were in high school, just down the road here near Pomona, that someday you would find yourself in France, or Japan running a very large hot sauce empire?

Marie Sharp:

No, never. Never, never.

Steven Shomler:

So you’d faced a few other challenges… We have something in common, then I wish we could have in common. We have both lost children. That is a very horrible thing. And your son was a part of your business, and you lost him.

Marie Sharp:

Yes. He was my manager for the warehouse in Belize City. And actually, he had… He was the one who put us all over the world. The keys to everywhere – he was the first to help us expand outside of Belize, He really did a good job in marketing work.

Steven Shomler:

So, I recorded a Culinary Treasure Podcast episode as well with your grandson Jodi. And your son, that’s Jodi’s father. So, you lost your son, Jodi lost his father. And now Jodi does part of what your son did.

Marie Sharp:

Yes.

Steven Shomler:

As far as the international distribution and those kind of things.

Marie Sharp:

Yes. Jose is a marketing person for Marie Sharp’s.

Steven Shomler:

I think if I’d had a grandson from my son Zayne, and I got to be in business with him, that would probably… The heartache of losing a child never goes away, but I’m sure being able to work with Jodi brings some joy.

Marie Sharp:

Yes, it does. Yes it gives me joy.

Steven Shomler:

And then another thing I’m just so impressed, is that you are still here at your desk, you’re working, you probably work too many hours, I’m guessing. That’s my guess. I teased Jody about that during the podcast I did with him.

But you love what you do?

Marie Sharp:

Yes, I do. Even though I’m not doing very much at this time, and I’m almost ready to work fewer hours.

Steven Shomler:

Are you going to retire someday?

Marie Sharp:

I don’t know. I don’t know.

Steven Shomler:

Well, in my opinion, and I have no business… What I say doesn’t matter. But in my opinion, if you decide to retire and just in enjoy life… Had you ever had a fry jack?

Marie Sharp:

I make them, yes.

Steven Shomler:

For those who don’t know, a fry jack is this incredible… It’s just an amazing Belizean delicacy. They probably make it in other parts of Central America I’m assuming, but a fantastic breakfast. You just take a little bit of black beans, avocado, egg, bacon stuff, put inside a fry jack and dump some Marie hot sauce on it. That’s a fantastic breakfast.

So you could just retire, stay home, have some fry jacks for breakfast with all those things in it and just enjoy life. It’s okay to do that.

Marie Sharp:

Well yes, I know, but even though my niece and my grandson and everybody here is putting their all into the company, and I know they can do it, I still feel that I should be here.

Steven Shomler:

I understand. You put your heart and soul into it, and I don’t want to hurt your heart, but another loss you’ve had to battle back from is recently you lost your husband.

Marie Sharp:

Yes. I lost my husband three years ago. Almost the same time with my son. It was just a couple of weeks in between.

Steven Shomler:

And your husband was, I’m guessing, behind the scenes always very helpful and supportive of you in business.

Marie Sharp:

Yes. He was the general manager for the Citrus company in Belize for 42 years. And after he retired, then he came here and he started helping me here. So he worked with us up until he passed away.

Steven Shomler:

I’m so sorry for your losses. It’s very hard, but so impressive to me that you’ve battled back from them and kept going.

Marie Sharp:

I have to, yes.

Steven Shomler:

Yeah. So I want to tell you two of my Marie Sharp Hot sauce stories.

So I started out in Portland, Oregon. You know what a food truck is, right? And so in Portland we have, we call them food carts, and most of them don’t have engines or steering wheels. They take some wheels, and they build a shack on them and put up walls and put in a stove.

And if you take a food cart down the freeway, they may fly apart. And so Andy and Tiffany Love. Tiffany is amazing. She moved to the United States from Belize, and married to Andy Love and they started a food cart called Love Belizean.

Because that’s their last name. So in 2014, on April 14th, 2014, I looked and found the photos. I went to try Belizean food for the first time in my life, and they had three dishes, rice and beans, and beef and rice and chicken and rice. And they were all amazing. And I still have the picture.

And at the Love Belizean Food Cart they have all of this Marie Sharp’s Hot sauce.

And I said, what’s this? And now Tiffany went on and on, how amazing your hot sauce was, that she loved it and she loved you, and they put some on, on all my food and I thought I was going to die. It was so hot. But I fell in love with your hot sauce. I fell in love with Belizean food and it did stuck in my head.

And by the way, I called Tiffany and talked to her and she says to tell you how much she loves you.

And she’s so grateful. You’ve never met her, but you’ve inspired her. She’s a young entrepreneurial woman and you’ve inspired her, and part of her successful business is your inspiration. So that’s 2014.

Then about five years ago I started dating my wife, and I opened up the cupboard and there’s like six, seven jar bottles of Marie Sharp Hot sauce. And I said, “What is this doing here?” Because I remember from 2014, and my wife tells me the story how 20 some years ago she came and spent some time volunteering, in the medical field, and she fell in love with your hot sauce.

And so, it’s just been a joy to me to actually get to be here. Be here and see your farm and meet your family and get to interview you.

You’ve had a big impact on a lot of people. Are you aware of that?

Marie Sharp:

I think so. When I became aware of it was when they went to New York to be inducted into the New York City Hot Sauce Hall of Fame.

Steven Shomler:

the New York City Hot Sauce Hall of Fame?

Marie Sharp:

I’m in the Hall of Fame, for peppers in New York. And we went for the Hot Pepper Hall of Fame in 2016.

Steven Shomler:

You were inducted in the New York City Hot Sauce Hall of Fame?

Marie Sharp:

Pepper Hall of Fame. And when we got there, there was lots of people from pepper companies, and actually several of them came and they shook my hand, and they said you are my inspiration you made me believe.

It really made me feel good, because I had touched a lot of people that I didn’t even know about.

Steven Shomler:

So you’ve inspired entrepreneurs. Lots and lots of entrepreneurs.

And then the other group of people you’ve inspired tremendously is Belizeans. Yesterday, I walked to a resort near where we’re staying, and we run into the General Manager, and he gives us a tour and I love getting a tour thing.

Then he says, oh, I’ll show you the garden. So, we go out to his garden, the resort has a garden, and I’m looking at all the things they’re growing, and I meet their gardener Jose and he’s amazing. And I think, “Wow, if I was the executive chef at this resort, I would love to have a garden.”

So, I wonder, do they have an executive chef? And I asked if there’s an executive chef here, and they say yes, he’s right over there. He was at the other side of the garden taking notes. So, we went over and visited with him. His name was Enrique Awe (Pronounced Aw-Way).

Chef Awe, we started visiting and talking, and I mentioned to him that I was coming here today, and his eyes lit up.

And he just moved back to Belize to work as a chef. He spent 20 years working in the United States, as a chef. And he told me that every time he’d go to the store and see your bottle of hot sauce on the shelf, to him was a big source of national pride.

It made him so proud to be from Belize. And so, I think you’ve inspired entrepreneurs, but you’ve inspired lots and lots of Belizeans.

Marie Sharp:

And we have lots of Belizeans that travel outside of Belize, Some people that visit places like Japan and saw the pepper in the supermarket, and it make them so, so happy.

So, we have a lot of people that do that. And by the way I didn’t know if you saw the news last night, but we just won Taste of Dubai for our mango habanero pepper sauce.

So, from all the peppers that were present with here from the Caribbean and for other factories, Marie Sharp’s won the best tasting pepper sauce in Dubai.

Steven Shomler:

Well I wish I could say, a surprise, but I’m an author, I read books, and I think if I were to start to make a list of all the awards you’ve won, it would take up a whole book, and it’s very well deserved. You had just won so many awards for your hot sauce.

Marie Sharp:

Yeah.

Steven Shomler:

So what are some of your favorite ways as we close for you to enjoy your hot sauce? What do you do at home with it when you have your hot sauce?

Marie Sharp:

I put it on everything I eat. Put on everything that we eat.

Steven Shomler:

Well, the other night I had some ribs, and there was the ribs… The glaze for the ribs was a mixture of your hot sauce and some of your jelly mixed together and put on the grill and they were absolutely fantastic.

Marie Sharp:

Yeah, lots of people that use our pepper jellies for that. They mix our pepper jelly and our hot sauce, and they use it for things like putting it on ribs, putting on your ham. When you’re baking your ham etc.

Steven Shomler:

So this is probably like asking about which one of your children is your favorite, but do you have… You have what? 14 flavors now, is that right?

Do you have a couple that are more of your favorites than another?

Marie Sharp:

It was changing as it goes along, right? Because my favorite Marie, is my original, is the mild habanero. And then I can put a lot on if I want a lot of heat. But now I’m at the garlic pepper sauce.

Steven Shomler:

Go back between those two?

Marie Sharp:

Between those two. Yes. And also, I must mention here that the pineapple pepper sauce, a percentage of the sales from the pineapple pepper sauce goes towards violence against women. So, we donate and a fraction of the sales of that hot sauce to the Haven House in Belize at Belize City.

Steven Shomler:

That’s fantastic. That’s very, very important.

Marie, it’s been a joy and a delight to have you on the podcast.

You’ve overcome so much, and you’ve built such an incredible business. I didn’t know that you started out in a place with no electricity and no phone.

I knew lots of your challenges. I didn’t know that one. What an impressive story you have.

What an incredible businesswoman you are. Not just a businesswoman, but a chef, because you made the sauce. That’s not an easy thing to make a really good hot sauce. I’ve had lots of hot sauce, but I haven’t had very many really good ones. And yours is some of the best.

Congratulations to you and thank you so much letting me interview you.

Marie Sharp:

And thank you very much too. Thank you for coming here, and it was a pleasure having you here.

Steven Shomler:

All right. Cheers!

Marie Sharp:

Cheers