(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Three billion dollars. That was the valuation of the hot sauce market in 2022. The industry got there thanks to 25 years of scorching growth, and now, some are likening the small, independent hot sauce makers to the homemade craft beer brewers of recent years.
Among those makers is Arizona’s Zac Perkins, who joined this week’s episode of Looped In: Chicago to discuss how his journey in the hot sauce industry took him, as he described it, “from homeless to ‘Hot Ones’” — a massively popular YouTube talk show centered around hot wings.
Perkins, who’s been sober since Jan. 3, 2017, said that journey includes a relapse he had on New Year’s Eve 2016. He told WBBM’s Jim Hanke that it almost cost him everything, including his job and his relationship.
At the time, Perkins was working at a local food co-op, and it was there that he began toying around with making a spicy barbecue sauce. Eventually, he perfected his first hot sauce: ToMango Habanero, which he gave away to friends and family in 4-ounce mason jars. He even shared some with his barber, who returned the favor with a little advice.
“So, I … gave it to him, and next time he was like, ‘Hey man, why do you not have a label on this?’” Perkins recalled. “That was what put the bug in my ear. On Sept. 8, 2018, I … set up my LLC. High Desert was technically born.”
One of the hot sauces that really put High Desert Sauce Company on the map, though, was one based off of chicken tikka masala — Perkins’ favorite Indian dish.
Around Christmas 2020, Perkins sent the Hot Ones showrunners a care package of a limited-edition set of hot sauces that he crafted in honor of his father, who had recently passed away from complications of kidney disease. A portion of the proceeds from the sauces went toward the National Kidney Foundation.
Perkins said he didn’t expect much from the package. A few months later, though, the showrunners reached out. They wanted to feature his sauce.
“We were talking over Zoom,” he said. “I cried. Like, just the opportunity to be on that stage meant so much to me because not even five years prior, I was a drug addict.”
He added: “Every small batch maker wants to be on Hot Ones, every single one.”
Perkins said he hopes that his story will help people realize that they can make a change in their own lives.
“I have people that I talk to, like, ‘Hey man, you inspired me to get sober because of your story,’” he said. “That itself is the most rewarding thing that I could accomplish with this company.”
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