Pepplish Provisions  -  Not Your Mama's Hot Sauce. Timothy Fraczak - Founder of Pepplish Provisions & Chief Hot Saucier. They say that the secret to a great dish is all in the seasoning. That may be one of the oldest cliches in the restaurant  industry, but it just so happens to be true as any accomplished chef from Guy Fieri to Bobby Flay, will tell you. 

 

 

Pepplish Provisions. When you watch a show like Master Chef or Chopped, how many times have you heard one of the judges tell a competitor that their food was bland or even inedible simply because it wasn't seasoned properly?

 

Many of you home cooks out there, probably learned how to cook from watching your mom or grandmother work their culinary magic in the family kitchen.

 

Remember those made from scratch meatballs that you still can't get enough of? They didn't taste that good by accident. Using a generations-old family recipe, your Nonna carefully seasoned that mound of succulent ground beef with a blend of tasty herbs and spices.

Her Sunday sauce, made from only the freshest tomatoes, sealed the deal. What enhanced the flavor profile of her tomato sauce? You got it; a blend of salt, pepper, basil and, perhaps, a bay leaf or two.

 

Your pantry shelf is most likely crowded with just about every type of sauce and seasoning known to man. But you might just be missing out on one of the tastiest yet misunderstood condiments in the world; hot sauce.

 

The right hot sauce can enhance the flavor of a wide variety of foods, transforming the bland and boring into the sublime. The only limit is your imagination. And if your life needs spicing up, well, a nice, zesty jar of hot sauce will do the trick.

 

If you love hot sauce or have been thinking of trying this tongue-tingling condiment out, then look for further than Pepplish Provisions for a jar of hot sauce that you won't soon forget!

 

Founded by Timothy Fraczak, Pepplish provisions is re-defining just what a hot sauce really is.

 

As far as Timothy is concerned, eating is not just a necessity; it's an experience. Tim's carefully-crafted recipes bring to the table hot sauce like you've never had it before. This is, indeed, the good stuff.

 

A seasoned saucier, Pepplish isn't Tim's first rodeo. He has been working with hot sauce since 2009. In fact, Tim's been in love with all things hot and spicy ever since he can remember.

 

"I started with spicy stuff when I was really young." recalled Tim. "My dad really likes Louisiana style hot sauces. He loves drowning his chicken and other food in Tabasco and Frank's. Over time I guess that I just developed a palate for all things spicy."

 

Laughing, Tim admitted that he would snack on jalapenos and banana peppers straight out of the jar.

 

After graduating from College, Tim moved to Queens where he began to cultivate a small garden with different pepper plants such as habaneros, ghosts and banana.

 

"As a hobby, more than anything else, I began to work on various recipes that incorporated the peppers from my backyard. I thought, from all of the commercial hot sauces that were available to me, they were either ready to melt my face off with almost no flavor or they had a boatload of taste but very little heat. The question that I constantly asked myself was "Why can't I have both?"

 

Over the years, Tim experimented in his kitchen, coming up with delicious blends of veggies, fruits and seasonings for his hot sauces.  Tim and his wife would go fruit-picking upstate and visit local farmer's markets for the ingredients.The sauces were a hit with friends and family, who couldn't get enough of them.

No food was safe from being doused with Timothy's hot sauce. It was a hit on everything from chicken and burgers to pizza, pancakes and, yes, even apple pie.

 

With three signature sauces under his belt, Tim entered his products in the Queens county fair and won the 1st and 2nd place with all three sauces.

 

Tim knew that he was on to something, creatively. But his wife Gloria had a somewhat larger vision for her husband's hot sauce. She thought that Tim could turn his passion into a profitable business. That goal wasn't even on Tim's radar. Not at that point in time, anyway.

 

"I was having a great time coming up with the different sauces and was not even remotely thinking about starting a business,"said Tim.

"Gloria is one of the most risk-averse people that I know. When she told me that it was time to take my hobby to another level, I just had to listen."

 

Soon, though, Tim was faced with making a difficult decision. His fledgling hot sauce company was taking up so much of his time that Tim had to choose between working a full-time job or following his dream. The decision turned out to be no contest.

 

Pepplish Provisions a distinctive, catchy name. It has a vintage ring to it. We asked Tim how he came up with such a creative moniker for his hot sauce.

 

"One of our friends, Laura, actually came up with the name," said Tim. I wanted a name that would suit the product; something rustic, classic and simple. Laura ran Pepplish by me and Gloria. Her idea behind the name was to combine pepper and relish, which is a play on "great enjoyment" (to relish something) and the condiment."

 

"The provisions part of the equation came to fruition one night when Gloria and I were having dinner and the word just popped into my mind. I said it aloud and it just clicked with both of us immediately!"

 

Without giving away any secret recipes, we asked Tim to take us through the process of what it takes to create a jar of his soon to be a famous hot sauce.

 

"It begins with some sort of inspiration. such as a fruit that I enjoy eating, the cuisine of another culture or seasonal flavors that just happen to grab me. I shop around and select the freshest ingredients I can find, take them home and then it's time to put on my mad scientists' lab coat and experiment. Through taste tests as well as trial and error, I try out various flavor combinations with a proprietary mix of peppers."

 

Once Tim has a recipe that he's pretty confident about, he will invite a select group of people he knows, many of whom are foodies or chefs to sample the batch of hot sauce. 

 

Prior to putting his new product on the market, Tim has to pass muster and have it approved by a certified food laboratory to ensure that the hot sauce is processed in such a way to minimize the risk of making people ill while also making the sauces shelf stable.

 

After all that has been done, Tim will scale up the recipe from about a quart to a thirty-gallon production run. Tim still crafts most of the ingredients by hand with the aid of some handy kitchen equipment like blenders and a large braiser. It's this personal touch that sets his hot sauces apart from others.

 

Tim and Gloria are all about giving back to the community. This charming couple fell in love with Queens and would not want to live anywhere else. The fact that Queens is one of the most diverse places you can find, anywhere, not just in NYC, but the country, certainly has a lot to do with its appeal.

 

"I firmly believe that a business has a responsibility to create and shape a better community around it."

 

To that end, Pepplish Provisions has formed an extremely productive working relationship with the students at John Bowne high school in Flushing, Queens. Most of the peppers used in Pepplish Provisions' hot sauces actually come from a garden that the students have worked tirelessly to cultivate.

 

John Bowne has an innovative agricultural program that teaches city kids the science behind farming, different farming techniques, animal care as well as careers in the field of agriculture.

Tim actually met the teacher who is in charge of the school's garden at the church that he attends, New Life fellowship.

 

After church services were over, the young entrepreneur and the teacher got into a conversation about their mutual love of nature and gardening. When the teacher learned that Tim was in the initial stages of starting a hot sauce business, he said that the students would be more than happy to supply Tim with all the peppers he needed.

 

A few months later, Tim got a phone call from the school's garden co-ordinator saying that his peppers were ready for pick up.

 

Looking back on that day, Tim's face had a look of sheer bemusement on it. 

 

"There hadn't really been much contact between me and the school, so I was surprised to get the phone call. Anyway, I drove over to John Bowne and thought "How many peppers can they actually produce? It can't be more than twenty pounds."

 

Turns out that was the understatement of the year. Continuing with the story, Tim exclaimed "Let me tell you just how wrong I was! The students had 113 pounds of green habanero peppers waiting for me. I was shocked. Now that I know what they're capable of, I plan to have the kids increase the crop yield so that I can exclusively use their peppers in my sauces."

 

"I plan to continue partnering with JBHS for as long as Pepplish is in business because I truly believe that they are providing an essential educational program that isn't available at most, if not all, schools in the tri-state area."

 

A man of deep faith and principle, Tim is always willing to give credit to others, for their share in his success. He is the first to admit that one guy or gal, no matter how hard working can't do it all.

 

Tim's best friend, Tino Evangelou and cousins Alex and Andrew Fraczak are all vital components in team Pepplish.

Andrew, who is a very talented graphic designer, helped Tim set up his website. Gloria is, of course, Tim's sous-chef and assistant saucier. She also works with her husband at various events, giving out samples of the hot sauce

    

 

At the moment, Tim has three delicious hot sauces available for purchase with an additional two nearing the green light stage for consumer consumption. Spoiler alert: one of these new creations is a dessert hot sauce!

That's why it's always a good idea to check in often at Pepplish Provision's website to see what's cooking and to read Tim's blog.

To spice up your meals or as a "dip" for corn chips, you can choose from Apple, Cilantro and Lime, the Peach, Agave-Garlic product or the Blueberry-Basil-Shallot hot sauce.

 

You'll be glad to know that these sauces are HOT because we know that you didn't come here to read about mild sauces. That's not your thing.

But the wonderful thing about Tim's sauces is that the fiery, spicy quality of the sauce doesn't mask the flavor of any of the other ingredients. That is huge.

 

The beauty of the sauces is that each one has a completely different flavor profile. That definitely ups the enjoyment ante considerably.

 

"For instance, "explained Tim,"the Blueberry Basil Shallot is kind of my take on a berry and onion vinaigrette. You can mix it with a little olive oil or vinegar and it makes for an excellent salad dressing. The Blueberry basil also shares similarities to a tangy and rich steak sauce, so it pairs really well with any red meat of your choice. Personally, I like a nice cut of skirt steak with a small cup of sauce on the side."

 

Tim's Apple-Cilantro-Lime sauce is bright, tangy and quite citrusy, so it does very well on seafood dishes like baked filet of sole, which is a huge favorite at dinner time in the Fraczak household.

Since it's the most acidic of the three sauces, the Apple-Cilantro tends to cut through fatty foods such as pork belly, pork chops and salmon. It goes great mixed in with scrambled eggs.

 

Last, but certainly not least, is the Peach-Agave and garlic hot sauce. Tim describes this one as being similar to a sweet and smoky barbecue sauce.

 

"With this sauce, I like to mix in some cider vinegar to loosen the sauce a bit and utilize it as a liquid marinade for smoking ribs or grilling chicken. It does wonders for raising the tasting bar for comfort foods like mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, fried chicken and pizza because it has those rich, smoky flavors."

 

In what little spare time he has, Tim enjoys mentoring both children and teens. Tim, in fact, used to run the New Life CDC Mentoring program in Elmhurst.

 

This topic led us into a discussion on what advice Tim would give to young people who are passionate about a particular skill or talent that they have and want to, one day, turn it into something more.

 

Tim's words of advice are both heartfelt and straight to the point.

 

"The best thing I can say is: I am not my business and my business isn't me. What I mean by that is that I am a complete and whole human being who is not defined by what I do I am so much more than that. Furthermore, what helped me to cement this belief is my faith and trusting my identity in Christ."

 

Tim advises the young entrepreneurs he works with to search for "why you do what you do and hold fast to that reason. Learn how to roll with the punches and figure out what to do with what you've been given."

 

"Failure isn't a terminating endpoint; it's a new beginning, a data point that informs me on what I could do better next time. I learned that through experience. If you are suffering from anxiety or depression, the best thing you can do for yourself is to seek professional help. It's not a sign of weakness at all. Getting help for my anxiety was one of the best decisions I ever made. It empowered me to live a fuller life."

 

Over the past year, Pepplish Provisions has raised it's profile on the New York foodie scene, generating a great deal of buzz.

 

The Pepplish team has appeared at such notable events as Queens Taste and Made In Queens, making a huge impact.This past Summer, Tim and his crew did a major product demo at the Brooklyn Chile Festival winning much love from all of the attendees.

 

Recently, Pepplish was invited to be a part of the Global Cuisine of Queens benefit for the Queens Metro Boys and Girls Club. Pepplish was one of the youngest companies at this event, which speaks volumes about the regard that Tim and his products are held in by both consumers and influencers.

 

Tim is really excited about being asked to become a vendor at the Fulton Stall Market. This community-driven farmers/producer's market focuses on the revival of the South Street Seaport neighborhood, post-Hurricane Sandy.

 

Local residents, tourists and food lovers from all over the city will be able to purchase a variety of artisanal goods while supporting a vibrant community that is still fighting hard to get completely back on its' feet.

 

Before winding up the conversation, we just had to ask Tim; as a life-long hot sauce fan, himself, what does he look for in a sauce?

 

"In general, I like a sauce that has a depth of flavors. It's kind of fun, the first few times that I taste a new hot sauce, to be surprised by the different flavors that pop up in my palate. Adding just the right amount of salt and sweetener, in moderation, of course, encourages my taste buds to identify each ingredient/flavor as well as extending the flavor profile."

 

In addition to being able to buy Pepplish Provision's hot sauces in fine stores throughout the city, you may order them through his website. 

 

These sauces make wonderful gifts for the foodie or home chef in your life, including YOU, so treat yourself! 

Tim has shipping down to a science, so if there is a friend or relative's birthday or holiday party coming up, they will receive their sauce in a timely manner. And, right now, as an exclusive deal for aplez.com readers, Tim is offering his hot sauces at 20% off each order.

 

Whether it's the Blueberry-Basil-Shallot, the peach Agave-Garlic or the sauce that started it all, Apple, Cilantro, Lime, there's a sauce to suit every personality and taste.

 

Pepplish provisions... so good, so natural and so very hot. From the Fraczak family table toyours..

 

Contact Info

 

Timothy Farczak

Pepplish Provisions

Queens NY

 

phone #   (347) 274-9906

email       This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

website    www.pepplish.com